Trademark squatting

Registering a mark you have no genuine intent to use, in order to sell it back or block a real owner. Common in first-to-file countries, where whoever registers first generally wins regardless of who used it first.

In the US, rights generally follow use, so a squatter has a harder time. In much of the rest of the world - including markets most e-commerce brands eventually sell into - rights follow registration, and whoever files first simply owns the name there. Squatters monitor exactly the sort of brand that is growing publicly and has not filed abroad yet.

You discover it when you try to expand, or when your products are pulled from a marketplace on the squatter's complaint. At that point your options are buying the registration back at their price, or a cancellation action in a foreign jurisdiction - both considerably more expensive than filing would have been.

1. List the countries you actually sell into or plan to within two years, including through marketplaces.
2. Check whether your mark is already registered there by someone else before you invest further in that market.
3. File in the markets that matter. The Madrid Protocol is often the efficient route once you have a US filing to base it on.
4. Watch for new filings that resemble your mark. Finding a squatter during their opposition window is dramatically cheaper than finding them after registration.

A US apparel brand grows on social media, starts shipping internationally, and finds its name registered in a first-to-file market by someone with no business there. The registration is then used to block the brand's own goods at customs. Nothing illegal has happened - the squatter simply filed first.