Continued use accepted, and your incontestability declaration acknowledged
Official wording: SECTION 8 & 15-ACCEPTED AND ACKNOWLEDGED
The strongest routine position a US registration can be in. Your continued use has been accepted and your Section 15 declaration acknowledged, which makes the registration incontestable on most grounds.
What incontestable actually buys you
A Section 15 acknowledgement means the registration can no longer be challenged on several of the most common grounds, including a claim that the mark is merely descriptive or that somebody else used it first. It does not make the registration immune to everything - a mark can still be attacked as generic, functional, abandoned, or obtained by fraud - but it removes the arguments most challengers reach for first.
This is a genuine asset now
Incontestable status strengthens your hand in enforcement, in licensing and in any marketplace or platform dispute, and it is the kind of thing that shows up in diligence if you ever sell the business. It is worth knowing you have it.
The maintenance clock has not stopped
A combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal is still due in the year before the tenth anniversary of registration and in the year before the end of every ten-year period after, each with a six-month grace period and surcharge. Incontestability does not exempt you from renewing, and an incontestable registration is lost to a missed renewal exactly like any other.
Use it or lose it still applies
Section 15 protects against certain challenges; it does not protect against abandonment. If you stop using the mark in commerce with no intent to resume, the rights can be lost regardless of what the certificate says.
Confirm this against your own record
Status code descriptions are administered inside USPTO systems and published wording varies slightly between sources. Your file is the authority. Enter your serial number in TSDR to see your current status, every document filed, and any live deadline.
Open TSDRLooking this up for a client rather than for your own mark? We keep a network of licensed attorneys who review the cases that come through us. It is case-by-case paid work and a free listing — never a referral fee or a cut of anything.
What comes before and after
Status 630
Filed, and waiting in the queue
Status 638
An examining attorney now has your file
Status 640
An office action has been counted, but not sent yet
Status 641
Your non-final office action has been mailed
Status 602
Your application was abandoned for failure to respond
Status 680
The examiner cleared your mark
Status 700
Your mark is registered