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Your Section 15 Declaration of Incontestability allows you to request the highest status of trademark protection under federal law. Once your Declaration is approved the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), you are protected against many legal challenges that people or businesses might raise to contest your right to your mark.
If your trademark's certificate states that it is on the Principal Register, and you have continuously used the mark in commerce for 5 consecutive years since its registration, you may file a Declaration of Incontestability.
With incontestable status, you are protected from challenges that your trademark is:
(1) not inherently distinctive and lacks secondary meaning;
(2) confusingly similar to a mark that someone else began using prior to the owner's registration; and
(3) simply functional.
To file this form, additional filing fees apply but incontestable registration only requires a one-time filing.
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