Someone has formally opposed your mark
Official wording: OPPOSITION PENDING
A third party has filed an opposition against your application at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. This is litigation, not paperwork, and it has deadlines that start running immediately.
You have to answer, and the Board sets the date
The Board issues a notice setting the time for your answer, and it can reset that time. If no answer is filed within the time set, the opposition may be decided as in the case of default - meaning you can lose the application without the merits ever being argued. The date is in the Board's notice; read it there.
What an opposition is
A proceeding with pleadings, discovery, evidence and briefing, conducted under the Board's rules of practice, which draw on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The opposer has to plead and prove grounds - most often that your mark would likely cause confusion with theirs, but also descriptiveness, dilution, or lack of bona fide intent.
Who opposes, and why it is rarely random
Almost always a business that already owns a similar mark in a related category and pays a watch service to catch filings like yours. That means the opposer has usually thought about this, has counsel, and has prior rights it believes are real.
Settlement is the common ending
Many oppositions resolve by agreement rather than decision - a narrowed goods description, a coexistence agreement, a change to how the mark is presented, or withdrawal. Knowing that early changes how you approach it, because the cheapest outcome is usually negotiated and the window for that is widest at the start.
Get a licensed attorney now
We will say this plainly rather than take the work: an opposition needs a trademark litigator, not a filing service. Representing yourself against a represented opposer in a Board proceeding goes badly in predictable ways.
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