Someone is formally trying to cancel your registration
Official wording: CANCELLATION PENDING
A third party has petitioned to cancel your registration at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Your registration is in force while this runs, but it is under genuine threat and deadlines are already moving.
Answer within the time the Board sets
The Board's notice sets the date for your answer and can reset it. Failing to answer in time can result in the petition being decided as in the case of default, which means losing the registration without the arguments being heard. Take the date from the Board's notice, not from an article.
What can be used against you
Common grounds include likelihood of confusion with earlier rights, that the mark has become generic, that it was abandoned through non-use, that the registration was obtained by fraud, or descriptiveness where the registration is not yet incontestable. Which grounds are available depends partly on how old your registration is and whether you ever filed a Section 15 declaration.
Incontestability matters a great deal here
If you filed a Section 15 declaration and it was acknowledged, several of the most common grounds are off the table. If you never did, they are available. This is the clearest argument for filing Section 15 when you are eligible, and it is usually realised at exactly this moment.
Keep your evidence of use together
Non-use and abandonment claims are won and lost on evidence - dated sales records, packaging, listings, advertising, invoices showing the mark on the goods or services across the relevant period. Gathering that now is more useful than arguing about it later, and gaps in it are where these cases turn.
This needs a litigator
A cancellation proceeding is adversarial litigation with discovery and testimony. It is not something a filing service should handle and we will not pretend otherwise.
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