Section 15 declaration

After five continuous years of use, you can declare the mark incontestable. This narrows the grounds on which anyone can later challenge it. It is optional, cheap relative to its value, and many owners never file it because nobody told them it existed.

This is the cheapest upgrade available to a trademark owner, and most owners never make it because nobody tells them it exists. After five continuous years of use you can declare the registration incontestable, which removes several of the grounds on which anyone could later attack it - including the argument that your mark is merely descriptive.

1. Confirm five consecutive years of continuous use since registration, with no adverse decision against the mark.
2. Check there is no pending proceeding involving the registration.
3. File it together with your Section 8, since the windows overlap and you are gathering the same evidence anyway.
4. Keep the acknowledgement. Incontestable status is worth citing in any later dispute or demand letter.

Two businesses with similar names end up in a dispute in year seven. One has an incontestable registration; the other does not. The incontestable owner cannot be met with the argument that their mark was descriptive all along - an argument that would otherwise have been the first thing raised.