Trademark: Section 15 Affidavit Filing

What is it?
When you received your registration for a trademark or servicemark, you either recently began using the mark or filed with the intent to use it in the near future. Under certain circumstances, your mark can still be contested by others. You file a Section 15 Affidavit to request that the status of your mark be incontestable.

When can you file it?
You generally file your Section 15 Affidavit concurrently with your Section 8 Affidavit (i.e., between the 5th and 6th years of your ownership of the mark. Five years of use in interstate commerce, it is argued, shows clear ownership of the mark. Therefore, it should not be opposed as an existing mark).

Must you file it?
A Section 15 Affidavit is entirely voluntary. But obtaining incontestability status seems to make filing a Section 15 Affidavit to like a no brainer.