US trademark modernisation: what it means for foreign brand owners

The Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 offers foreign brand owners new tools to remove problematic marks from the US register, but it could also pose challenges, explain Brett Heavner and Yinfei Wu of Finnegan.

On December 27, 2020, then US President Donald Trump signed the Trademark Modernization Act (TMA) into law. While the TMA can benefit foreign brand owners with its new rules and proceedings, it may also present them with challenges.

One of the TMA’s principal goals is to reduce the number of spurious trademark registrations and applications that are based on inaccurate claims of use in US commerce. 

The TMA has created three new tools to address this goal. Specifically, the TMA (i) provides for a broader and easier Letter of Protest system; (ii) creates a streamlined expungement procedure; and (iii) establishes new grounds for the re-examination of a registration.