Someone is applying to register your brand
Between examination and registration, every trademark application sits published for a fixed period in which anyone can oppose it. The windows are short, two of the three are not extendable, and they are the cheapest moment in the entire lifecycle to stop a mark. Miss one and your options narrow sharply and get considerably more expensive.
| Office | Window | Extendable? |
|---|---|---|
| UK IPO | 2 months from publication | Yes — to 3 months, by filing a notice of threatened opposition within the initial period |
| EUIPO | 3 months from publication in the EU Trade Marks Bulletin | No. The notice and the fee must both arrive inside the window |
| USPTO | 30 days from publication in the Official Gazette | Yes, on request, in defined increments |
At the EUIPO the fee has to be received within the three months, not merely instructed. An opposition filed on the final day with payment arriving the following morning is out of time, and there is no mechanism to fix it. If you are anywhere near the deadline, pay first and file second.
Nobody tells you the window has opened
This is the structural problem. No office writes to you when a third party applies for something close to your mark. Publication happens, the clock runs, and unless somebody is looking you find out when the registration certificate already exists.
Two ways to be looking. Commercial watching services monitor the registers and alert you, priced per mark per territory, and for a business with a mark worth defending they are cheaper than a single missed deadline. Or you search the registers yourself on a calendar reminder — monthly is enough given the window lengths, it is free, and it is considerably better than nothing. How to search so the result means something.
What happens if you miss it
The mark proceeds to registration and your route changes from opposing an application to attacking a registration. That means invalidation or cancellation proceedings, which are slower, cost more, and start from a worse position — you are now trying to remove a right that exists rather than prevent one that does not.
It is not hopeless. Grounds that existed at the application date generally survive, and non-use becomes available once the mark has been registered long enough. But everything about it is harder than a timely opposition, and that difference is the entire argument for watching the registers.
Before you oppose
- Read the specification, not the class. The question is whether the goods and services actually collide with yours. A mark in your class covering something unrelated may not be worth opposing. What a class actually covers.
- Check your own position is sound. Opposition proceedings routinely prompt the other side to attack your mark in return — for non-use, or on grounds you had not considered. Do not open a fight you are not able to withstand.
- Consider writing first. Many applications are resolved by a letter leading to a limitation of the specification, which gets you what you needed without proceedings. Do this carefully: unjustified threats can themselves be actionable.
- Diarise the deadline the day you find the application, and work backwards from it rather than towards it.
Questions
Can I oppose without a registered mark of my own?
Depending on the office and the ground, yes. Earlier unregistered rights built through trading can support an opposition in some systems, and there are absolute grounds — descriptiveness, for instance — that do not depend on your own rights at all. The evidential burden for unregistered rights is heavier, which is exactly why this is the point to take advice rather than to file on instinct.
The application is in a country I do not trade in yet.
Then decide whether you will be there within the life of the mark. Trademark rights are territorial and the cost of clearing someone out of a market later, after they have built a business, is a different order to opposing now. This is a commercial judgement about your own expansion plans rather than a legal one.
Does opposing guarantee the mark is refused?
No. Oppositions are contested proceedings that are decided on evidence, and losing one leaves the mark registered and you out of pocket. It is a real dispute, not a veto.
Related
- Why identical is the wrong testHow similarity is actually assessed
- All four dispute routesDomains, company names, oppositions and the option of simply buying
Reviewed 2026-09-20. Periods and fees are set by each office and change — confirm the current window at the relevant office before relying on any figure here. General guidance, not legal advice.