TTAB Opposition Filing Checklist

By Casey Scott McKay · 2026-01-15

A notice of opposition is a federal complaint on a thirty-day fuse, and most of what goes wrong with one goes wrong before a word of the pleading is drafted. This checklist runs the filing in eleven phases: confirming the publication date from the Official Gazette rather than a watch alert, laddering the extensions that buy up to 180 days, deciding whether the Board is the right forum at all, naming an opposer that can prove entitlement under Lexmark and Corcamore, building the priority record, choosing grounds you will still want in eighteen months, drafting to the Iqbal standard, attaching the one document that is actually evidence, completing the ESTTA cover sheet that counts as part of the pleading, paying $600 per class per opposer, and working the ten weeks between institution and the discovery conference. Every deadline carries its rule cite, the fee table is current, and the Section 66(a) rules that lock your grounds at the moment of filing get their own treatment. One invented matter — Ashcombe Cider Works opposing ASHCOMB in two classes off a 3 March 2026 publication — carries real dates and real arithmetic through every phase. The three traps that cost the most money are here as well: docketing from the alert instead of the Gazette, underpaying the per-class fee, and attaching exhibits that 37 C.F.R. § 2.122(c) says are not evidence at all.

IP and Technology > Trademarks | Checklist | Published 15 January 2026 - Updated 30 July 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us

Summary. Deadlines, grounds, and exhibits — the ordered set of actions that gets a notice of opposition drafted, funded, filed, and instituted without a fatal defect. Eleven phases, from reading the publication date off the Official Gazette through laddering extensions to the 180-day ceiling, testing the forum choice, naming an opposer with entitlement, building priority, selecting grounds, drafting, attaching the status-and-title copy, completing the ESTTA cover sheet, paying the per-class fee, and running the first ten weeks after institution. Current TTAB fees, every rule cite, the Madrid Section 66(a) rules that freeze your grounds at filing, and the counterclaim exposure you invite by pleading your own registration. An Oregon cider maker opposing a Nashville beverage company is carried through every phase with real dates and real money.

Keywords: ttab opposition · notice of opposition · estta filing · official gazette publication · thirty-day opposition period · extension of time to oppose · 15 u.s.c. 1063 · 37 c.f.r. 2.101 · 37 c.f.r. 2.104 · entitlement to a statutory cause of action · du pont factors · section 66(a) madrid opposition · status and title copy · compulsory counterclaim · institution order · answer deadline · opposition filing fee · priority evidence · letter of protest · b&b hardware preclusion

What this checklist is for

Use this checklist to make sure nothing is missed. Every item below matters, because an opposition is the rare federal pleading with a hard external clock that nobody will extend for you after the fact. The Board has no equivalent of Rule 6(b) relief once the statutory window closes: if the thirty days run, the registration issues, and your only remaining instrument is a petition for cancellation under 15 U.S.C. § 1064 with a shorter menu of grounds.

Three things decide an opposition, and the stub of this document named them years ago: deadlines, grounds, and exhibits. The deadlines are unforgiving and arithmetic. The grounds are a strategic choice you make once and largely live with. The exhibits are a trap, because almost nothing you attach to the pleading is evidence.

Who should use it. The associate or paralegal who owns a watch docket; in-house counsel deciding whether a competitor's published application is worth $600 a class; solo practitioners filing their first ESTTA opposition; and anyone handed a matter on day 24 of a thirty-day window.

What you'll need before you start.

The serial number and the publication date taken from the Official Gazette issue itself, not from a watch alert.
A complete TSDR download of the opposed application's file wrapper: drawing, identification, filing basis, specimens, every office action and response.
Registration certificates and TSDR status-and-title printouts for every registration you will plead, pulled the week you file.
A priority file for any common-law rights: dated invoices, dated advertising, first-use documentation, territory evidence.
A conflict check against the applicant, its parent, its counsel, and any related listed entity.
A funded USPTO deposit account, EFT credentials, or a firm card, and a MyUSPTO account with two-step authentication for whoever presses submit.

What this checklist does not do. It does not teach the doctrine underneath. The strategy — when to oppose at all, how the Board treats a weak mark, how a case gets tried — is developed at length in How to File a Notice of Opposition, and the surrounding practice sits in the TTAB Practice Toolkit. If you are still choosing between proceedings, read TTAB Proceedings: Opposition vs. Cancellation first. This document is the work order.

The matter carried through every phase

Ashcombe Cider Works, LLC, of Hood River, Oregon, presses hard cider and runs a taproom. It owns Reg. No. 5,908,431 for ASHCOMBE in standard characters, registered 6 April 2021, Class 33 (hard cider), and it has used ASHCOMBE ORCHARD continuously for taproom and restaurant services since May 2017 without ever registering it.

On Tuesday, 3 March 2026, the Official Gazette publishes Serial No. 98/611,204, ASHCOMB in standard characters, filed 3 February 2025 under Section 1(b) by Ashcomb Beverage Group, Inc. of Nashville, Tennessee, in Class 32 (non-alcoholic malt beverages) and Class 43 (bar and taproom services). Ashcombe's watch service delivers the alert on 9 March. Nobody opens it until 17 March.

The phases at a glance

| Phase | Name | Output | |---|---|---| | 1 | Fix the window from the Gazette | A verified, double-computed deadline sheet | | 2 | Buy time before you decide | Extension filed, ladder docketed | | 3 | Test the forum | A written recommendation the client signs | | 4 | Name the opposer, plead entitlement | Correct legal name, entity, domicile | | 5 | Build the priority package | Dated proof of rights that predate the applicant | | 6 | Choose the grounds | A short list you can still prove in month twenty | | 7 | Draft the pleading | Numbered counts that survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion | | 8 | Assemble the attachments | Status-and-title copies, and nothing else | | 9 | Complete ESTTA and price it | Cover sheet matching the pleading, fee paid in full | | 10 | File and prove you filed | ESTTA receipt, TTABVUE confirmation, file copy | | 11 | Work the first ten weeks | Institution order calendared, conference held |

Phase 1 — Fix the window from the Official Gazette

[ ] Open the eOG:TM issue for the week and read the publication date off the Gazette page for this serial number.
- Why. The thirty days run from publication, not from the date the watch service noticed, not from the notice of publication mailed to the applicant, and not from the date the entry appears in a commercial database. Watch reports routinely arrive four to nine days late and some restate the alert date as the publication date.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. §§ 1062(a), 1063(a); 37 C.F.R. § 2.101.
- Trap. A docket built off the alert email gives you a deadline that is a week early — harmless — or a week late, which is fatal and uncurable. There is no petition to revive a lapsed opposition period.
[ ] Confirm the application is on the Principal Register. Applications amended to the Supplemental Register are not published for opposition; they publish only upon registration, and your remedy is a cancellation petition.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. § 1092.
[ ] Read the filing basis off TSDR and record it. Section 1(a), 1(b), 44(d), 44(e), or 66(a). The basis changes the rules in Phases 2, 6, and 9.
[ ] Record the classes and copy the identification of goods and services verbatim into the matter file. You oppose by class, pay by class, and are judged on the recitation as written — not on what the applicant actually sells.
- Why. The Board compares goods and services as recited, presuming they travel in all normal channels of trade to all usual purchasers. See Trademark Infringement: Proving Likelihood of Confusion and, for the drafting side of the same problem, Drafting an Identification of Goods and Services.
[ ] Compute the deadline twice, by two people, and apply the rollover rule: if the last day is a Saturday, Sunday, or a federal holiday in the District of Columbia, file the next business day.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.196.
- Ashcombe: publication Tuesday, 3 March 2026; the unextended deadline is Thursday, 2 April 2026.
[ ] Docket the ESTTA cutoff as 11:59 p.m. Eastern, not local time, and set your internal deadline 72 hours earlier.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.195(a).

Phase 2 — Buy time before you decide anything

[ ] File the first thirty-day extension the day the matter lands. It is granted on request, requires no showing, and costs nothing.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. § 1063(a); 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c)(1).
- Why. Thirty free days is the cheapest thing in trademark practice. Nothing about filing it commits you to opposing, and the applicant learns only that someone is looking.
[ ] Understand the ladder before you climb it. The absolute ceiling is 180 days from publication and no rule, stipulation, or consent extends it.

| Step | Length | Standard | Fee (per application) | Rule | |---|---|---|---|---| | First request — option A | 30 days | Granted on request | $0 | 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c)(1) | | First request — option B | 90 days | Good cause shown | $200 | 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c)(1) | | After a 30-day extension | 60 more days | Good cause shown | $200 | 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c)(2) | | Final request (after 90 days total) | 60 days | Applicant's written consent | $400 | 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c)(3) |

[ ] Know what "good cause" means here. The Board accepts a representation that the requester needs time to investigate the claim, retain or confer with counsel, or continue settlement discussions. You do not file declarations.
[ ] Note that extension fees are per application, while the opposition fee is per class per opposer. Practitioners reverse this constantly.
[ ] For a Section 66(a) Madrid application, file every extension request through ESTTA. Paper is not accepted under any circumstances, including ESTTA outages.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(a)(1).
[ ] Docket the entire ladder now, with the 180-day ceiling in bold.
- Ashcombe: free thirty days to Saturday, 2 May 2026, rolling to Monday, 4 May 2026; a good-cause sixty-day extension to Wednesday, 1 July 2026; and a consented final sixty days to Sunday, 30 August 2026, rolling to Monday, 31 August 2026. That is the wall.

Trap. The final sixty-day extension requires the applicant's written consent. If you plan to use it, ask for it in week eight, not on day 118. An applicant who has watched you extend twice has every reason to refuse and force you to file or fold.

Phase 3 — Test the forum before you spend the filing fee

[ ] Write down, in one sentence, what the client wants. Then check it against what the Board can do.
- Why. The Board decides the right to register. It cannot enjoin use, award damages or profits, or shift fees. A client whose real complaint is competing sales has bought the wrong proceeding.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. §§ 1067, 1068; see Federal Court vs. TTAB: Where to Bring Your Dispute.
[ ] If the answer is "make them stop selling," price a district court action instead, and run the injunction analysis on the Preliminary Injunction Motion Checklist for Trademark Cases. That checklist covers declarations, bond under Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(c), and notice; the litigation arc around it is in the Trademark Litigation Toolkit.
[ ] Price the preclusion risk in both directions before you file.
- Authority. B&B Hardware, Inc. v. Hargis Industries, Inc., 575 U.S. 138, 160 (2015) — a Board likelihood-of-confusion decision can preclude relitigation in district court where the usages adjudicated are materially the same as those before the court.
- Why. A cheap Board loss on confusion can follow the client into an expensive courtroom. Conversely, a Board win on a well-framed record is worth more than its price.
[ ] Consider the letter of protest as a parallel, cheaper track where the objection is clean, public, and examiner-facing — a prior registration, a generic term, a specimen problem.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. § 1051(f); 37 C.F.R. § 2.149. The fee is $50, and after publication the submission must be filed within thirty days of publication.
- Trap. A letter of protest is not a substitute for the extension. File both.
[ ] If the target is an existing registration rather than an application, and the complaint is non-use, compare ex parte expungement and reexamination before committing to an inter partes fight. 15 U.S.C. §§ 1066a, 1066b (Trademark Modernization Act of 2020). Then read Filing a Petition for Cancellation.
[ ] Decide whether to send a demand letter first, knowing that a specific accusation can hand the applicant declaratory-judgment jurisdiction in a forum of its choosing. MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., 549 U.S. 118, 127 (2007). The drafting calculus is in Sending an Effective Cease-and-Desist Letter and the escalation sequencing in the Pre-Litigation Enforcement Checklist.

Phase 4 — Name the opposer correctly and plead entitlement

[ ] Confirm the exact legal name, entity type, and state or country of organization of the party that will oppose. Pull it from the secretary of state, not from the client's letterhead.
- Trap. A parent company that owns nothing and a subsidiary that owns everything are two different opposers. You cannot add a joint opposer after the opposition window closes. 37 C.F.R. § 2.107(a).
[ ] Verify chain of title for every registration you will plead. If an assignment, merger, or name change is unrecorded, record it before you file.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. § 1060(a)(3); see the Trademark Assignment Recordal Checklist.
[ ] If the opposer is foreign-domiciled, retain U.S.-licensed counsel. It is mandatory, not optional.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. §§ 2.2, 2.11(a).
[ ] Plead entitlement to a statutory cause of action as its own numbered paragraph. Two elements: an injury within the zone of interests the Lanham Act protects, and proximate causation.
- Authority. Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., 572 U.S. 118, 129 (2014), applied to Board proceedings in Corcamore, LLC v. SFM, LLC, 978 F.3d 1298, 1305 (Fed. Cir. 2020), and Australian Therapeutic Supplies Pty. Ltd. v. Naked TM, LLC, 965 F.3d 1370, 1374 (Fed. Cir. 2020). The older "real interest and reasonable basis" formulation is substantively the same. Ritchie v. Simpson, 170 F.3d 1092, 1095 (Fed. Cir. 1999).
- Why. It is liberally construed but it is not automatic, and it must be pleaded in the notice and proven at trial. Pleading a registration and making it of record ordinarily does the job. Cunningham v. Laser Golf Corp., 222 F.3d 943, 945 (Fed. Cir. 2000).
[ ] Audit your own pleaded registrations before you plead them. Is the mark in use on everything recited? Was the specimen sound? Is anything vulnerable to a non-use or fraud attack?
- Trap. Pleading a registration makes any attack on its validity a compulsory counterclaim for the applicant. A party that fails to bring it loses it — and a party that brings it can take your asset off the register while defending its own application. 37 C.F.R. § 2.106(b)(3)(i); Vitaline Corp. v. General Mills, Inc., 891 F.2d 273, 275 (Fed. Cir. 1989). Run the Trademark Abandonment Evidence Checklist and the Trademark Fraud Claim and Self-Audit Checklist against yourself first.
- Ashcombe's Class 33 registration is clean. Its 2019 specimen was a bottle label, its sales are continuous, and the identification says "hard cider" and nothing more.

Phase 5 — Build the priority package before you draft

[ ] Fix the applicant's constructive first-use date: the application filing date, unless the applicant claims an earlier actual first use or a Section 44(d)/66(a) priority date. Everything you own must predate it.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. § 1057(c).
- Ashcombe's target date is 3 February 2025. Its registration issued in 2021 and its ORCHARD use began in 2017. Both clear.
[ ] If you rely on a registration, priority is not an issue so long as the registration is of record and unchallenged. King Candy Co. v. Eunice King's Kitchen, Inc., 496 F.2d 1400, 1401 (C.C.P.A. 1974).
[ ] If you rely on common-law rights, you must prove both prior use and that the mark is distinctive — inherently or through acquired distinctiveness — as of the priority date.
- Authority. Otto Roth & Co. v. Universal Foods Corp., 640 F.2d 1317, 1320 (C.C.P.A. 1981).
- Why. An unregistered descriptive term with no secondary meaning gives you nothing to be confused with. Work the Common-Law Priority Evidence Checklist and, if secondary meaning is in play, the Secondary Meaning Evidence Checklist.
[ ] If you are relying on use analogous to trademark use — advertising before sales — collect proof that the pre-sale publicity actually created public identification of the mark with the source, not merely that it existed.
- Authority. T.A.B. Systems v. PacTel Teletrac, 77 F.3d 1372, 1375 (Fed. Cir. 1996); Herbko International, Inc. v. Kappa Books, Inc., 308 F.3d 1156, 1162 (Fed. Cir. 2002).
[ ] Pull dated documents into a single indexed folder: first invoice, first shipping record, dated ad buys, dated web captures with URLs, and revenue by year. The doctrine behind what counts is in Establishing and Proving Common-Law Trademark Rights.
[ ] Decide now whether a survey is realistic. A confusion or genericness survey costs more than most oppositions and must be scoped before the discovery conference. Read Commissioning and Attacking a Trademark Survey before you promise a client one, and the Trademark Survey Design and Challenge Checklist if you go ahead.

Phase 6 — Choose grounds you will still want in month twenty

[ ] Start from the full statutory menu. Any ground on which the examining attorney could have refused registration is available to you, plus dilution.

| Ground | Authority | What it costs you to prove | |---|---|---| | Likelihood of confusion | 15 U.S.C. § 1052(d) | Priority plus the du Pont factors | | Merely descriptive / deceptively misdescriptive | 15 U.S.C. § 1052(e)(1) | Dictionary, third-party use, applicant's own copy | | Primarily geographically descriptive or deceptive | 15 U.S.C. § 1052(e)(2)–(3) | Goods/place association evidence | | Primarily merely a surname | 15 U.S.C. § 1052(e)(4) | Census and directory evidence | | Genericness | 15 U.S.C. §§ 1052(e)(1), 1064(3) | Primary significance to the relevant public | | Functionality | 15 U.S.C. § 1052(e)(5) | Utility patents, advertising touting, alternatives | | False suggestion of a connection | 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a) | Fame of the name or institution | | Name of a living individual without consent | 15 U.S.C. § 1052(c) | Identification plus absence of consent | | Dilution by blurring or tarnishment | 15 U.S.C. §§ 1063(a), 1125(c) | General-public fame before the priority date | | No bona fide intent to use | 15 U.S.C. § 1051(b) | Absence of documentary corroboration | | Non-use as of the claimed date | 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051(a), 1127 | Specimen and sales discovery | | Fraud on the Office | 15 U.S.C. § 1064(3) | Clear and convincing intent to deceive |

[ ] Strike any ground you would not actually try. Extra counts expand discovery, invite summary judgment motions, and signal that the lead count is thin.
[ ] Before ticking dilution, confirm your mark is famous to the general consuming public. Niche fame does not qualify, and the fame must predate the applicant's priority date.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(2)(A); Coach Services, Inc. v. Triumph Learning LLC, 668 F.3d 1356, 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2012). See Trademark Dilution Under the TDRA and the Trademark Dilution Claim Checklist.
[ ] Before ticking fraud, confirm you can plead a knowingly false material statement made with intent to deceive, with Rule 9(b) particularity. Nothing less.
- Authority. In re Bose Corp., 580 F.3d 1240, 1245 (Fed. Cir. 2009); Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) via 37 C.F.R. § 2.116(a). Read Fraud on the Trademark Office: What In re Bose Actually Requires before you commit.
[ ] Against a Section 1(b) applicant, consider lack of bona fide intent. The absence of any documentary evidence of intent as of the filing date is sufficient to carry the claim.
- Authority. Commodore Electronics Ltd. v. CBM Kabushiki Kaisha, 26 U.S.P.Q.2d 1503, 1507 (T.T.A.B. 1993); M.Z. Berger & Co. v. Swatch AG, 787 F.3d 1368, 1375 (Fed. Cir. 2015). The applicant's side of that same question is in Intent-to-Use Applications, and the downstream deadlines that give you a second look are in the Statement of Use Filing Checklist.
[ ] Consider pleading a Section 18 restriction in the alternative — asking the Board to narrow the identification rather than refuse it outright — where a carve-out would resolve the conflict. You must plead that the restriction would avoid the likelihood of confusion.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. § 1068; Eurostar Inc. v. "Euro-Star" Reitmoden GmbH & Co. KG, 34 U.S.P.Q.2d 1266 (T.T.A.B. 1994).
- Why. Most oppositions settle on identification language. Pleading the restriction puts the settlement you actually want on the table in paragraph one.
[ ] Do not plead disparagement or scandalousness. Both bars are unconstitutional. Matal v. Tam, 582 U.S. 218 (2017); Iancu v. Brunetti, 588 U.S. 388 (2019). The names clause of § 2(c) survives. Vidal v. Elster, 602 U.S. 286 (2024).
[ ] Section 66(a) only: finalize your grounds now. Against a Madrid extension of protection, an opposition may not be amended later to add grounds or to add goods or services beyond those in the notice.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.107(b).
[ ] Ashcombe's final list: Section 2(d) as to both classes, based on the ASHCOMBE registration and the ASHCOMBE ORCHARD common-law rights; lack of bona fide intent as to Class 43; and a Section 18 alternative restricting Class 32 to exclude beverages sold in taprooms. No dilution. No fraud.

Phase 7 — Draft the notice of opposition

[ ] Caption it correctly: opposer name, applicant name, the mark as published, the serial number, and the publication date.
[ ] Open with a short and plain statement of why the opposer believes it would be damaged, then the grounds.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. § 1063(a); 37 C.F.R. § 2.104(a).
[ ] Plead to the federal pleading standard. The Board applies Twombly and Iqbal, and Rule 12(b)(6) motions are common and often granted with leave to replead — which costs you two months.
- Authority. Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007); Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009); 37 C.F.R. § 2.116(a).
[ ] Give each registration its own paragraph with the registration number, the mark, the register, the class, the identification, and the registration date. Then allege ownership and validity in a separate sentence.
[ ] Separate the counts with headings and number the paragraphs continuously. Incorporate by reference at the head of each count.
[ ] Keep the pleading free of evidence and argument. This is a complaint, not a brief.
[ ] Format to the rule: PDF, text at 11-point type or larger, double-spaced, exhibits clear and legible.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.126(a).
[ ] Sign with a proper electronic signature — the signer personally enters it, flanked by forward slashes — and remember that filing carries a Rule 11-equivalent certification.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. §§ 2.193, 11.18(b).
[ ] Do not verify or notarize it. A notice of opposition is not a sworn document.
[ ] If you are opposing more than one application owned by the same applicant, you may file a consolidated notice — but you owe the full fee for each opposer, in each class, in each application.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.104.

Practice tip. Draft the Section 2(d) count around the recitations, not the marketplace. The Board reads "bar services" to include every bar, in every price tier, in every channel. Applicants who insist their product is craft-only and yours is mass-market are arguing facts the Board is not permitted to consider. A drafting model with annotations is in the Notice of Opposition — Template.

Phase 8 — Assemble the attachments, and attach almost nothing

[ ] Attach a current TSDR printout showing status and title for each pleaded registration, dated within days of filing. This is the single attachment that makes a registration part of the evidentiary record automatically.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.122(d)(1).
- Why. Without it, your own registration is not in evidence, and you must offer it during your testimony period eighteen months later — a step that gets forgotten and has cost opposers cases they were winning.
[ ] Do not attach your priority evidence, your survey, your advertising, or the applicant's website. Exhibits attached to a pleading are not evidence unless separately identified and introduced during the testimony period.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.122(c).
- Trap. This is the item the stub of this checklist called "exhibits," and it is backwards from federal court instinct. Attaching your best documents to the notice does not put them in the record; it just shows the applicant your hand on day one.
[ ] Note what is already of record without any effort: the file of the opposed application, in its entirety.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.122(b).
[ ] Build a separate, indexed evidence binder that never gets filed. It is the backbone of your initial disclosures and your notices of reliance later.
[ ] Confirm the pleaded registrations are not themselves subject to a pending audit, cancellation, or maintenance deadline that will mature during the proceeding.

Phase 9 — Complete the ESTTA cover sheet and pay the right fee

[ ] Treat the ESTTA cover sheet as part of the pleading, because the Board does.
- Authority. Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. v. Bio-Chek, LLC, 90 U.S.P.Q.2d 1112 (T.T.A.B. 2009); TBMP § 309.03(a)(2).
- Trap. If the form names a different opposer than the attached notice, or checks grounds the notice does not plead, the Board resolves the conflict against you. Proofread the form against the pleading line by line.
[ ] For a Section 66(a) application, the grounds and goods identified on the ESTTA form fix the outer boundary of the case, because the Board must transmit that scope to WIPO. O.C. Seacrets, Inc. v. Hotelplan Italia S.p.A., 95 U.S.P.Q.2d 1327 (T.T.A.B. 2010); 37 C.F.R. § 2.107(b). Background on the underlying system is in The Madrid Protocol: How International Registration Works.
[ ] Select every class you intend to oppose. You cannot add classes after the window closes.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.107(a).
- Why. Over-plead classes rather than under-plead them. Dropping a class later is free; adding one is impossible.
[ ] Compute the fee: $600 per class, per opposer, electronically filed.

| Filing | Fee | Basis | |---|---|---| | Notice of opposition | $600 | Per class, per opposer | | Petition for cancellation | $600 | Per class, per petitioner | | First 30-day extension to oppose | $0 | Per application | | 90-day or additional 60-day extension (good cause) | $200 | Per application | | Final 60-day extension (consented) | $400 | Per application | | Letter of protest | $50 | Per submission | | Ex parte appeal | $225 | Per class |

[ ] Pay in full. An opposition submitted through ESTTA with an insufficient fee is not accepted, and an underpayment that covers only some classes is applied to the lowest-numbered classes first.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.101(d).
- Trap. A declined card at 11:47 p.m. on the deadline is not an extraordinary circumstance. Fund the deposit account a week early.
[ ] Ashcombe's arithmetic: two classes × one opposer × $600 = $1,200, plus $200 already spent on the sixty-day extension. Total government spend, $1,400.

Phase 10 — File, verify, and docket

[ ] File before the Eastern-time cutoff, and treat the ESTTA maintenance window as if it were a holiday.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. §§ 2.126(a), 2.195(a).
[ ] Save the ESTTA tracking number and the confirmation email to the matter file the moment they arrive.
[ ] Within 24 hours, open TTABVUE, confirm the proceeding number issued, and download the filed pleading exactly as the Board received it. Verify that every attachment uploaded.
[ ] Do not serve the applicant. Since the 2017 rule amendments, the Board serves the notice of institution, with a link to the electronic record, on the applicant or its counsel.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.105.
- Trap. Every other paper in the case must be served by email with a certificate of service, and there is no five-day mailing extension for email service. 37 C.F.R. § 2.119(a)–(c).
[ ] Enter your appearance and confirm the correspondence email of record. Board orders go to that address and nowhere else.
[ ] Send the client a one-page filing report: proceeding number, classes opposed, grounds pleaded, fees paid, and the next four dates.

Phase 11 — Work the first ten weeks after institution

[ ] Calendar every date in the institution order the day it issues. The order controls; the defaults below are what it usually sets.

| Event | Default timing | Ashcombe (institution 1 July 2026) | |---|---|---| | Answer due | Institution + 40 days | 10 August 2026 | | Discovery conference deadline | Institution + 70 days | 9 September 2026 | | Discovery opens | Same day as the conference deadline | 9 September 2026 | | Initial disclosures | 30 days after discovery opens | 9 October 2026 | | Expert disclosures | 30 days before discovery closes | 6 February 2027 | | Discovery closes | 180 days after it opens | 8 March 2027 |

Authority. 37 C.F.R. §§ 2.106(a), 2.120(a); TBMP § 310.03.
[ ] If no answer arrives, do not move for judgment immediately. The Board issues a notice of default and gives the applicant a chance to show good cause. All other deadlines are tolled meanwhile.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.106(a).
[ ] Prepare for the discovery conference as a settlement conference. Raise three things: a negotiated identification restriction, Accelerated Case Resolution, and any modification to the standard protective order.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.116(g) (standard protective order applies automatically); TBMP §§ 401.01, 702.04. The mechanics are in Understanding TTAB Discovery and the Protective Order.
- Why. ACR can resolve the case on stipulated facts and cross-motions in six to ten months for a fraction of full trial cost — but the window to propose it effectively closes at the conference and nobody reminds you.
[ ] Watch for the compulsory counterclaim in the answer. If it lands, the Board will set a separate answer date at least thirty days out.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.106(b)(3)(iii).
[ ] Understand the exit rules before you negotiate. You may withdraw without prejudice any time before the answer is filed. After the answer, withdrawal without the applicant's consent is with prejudice and res judicata bars a later challenge.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.106(c).
- Trap. This is the most under-appreciated rule in Board practice. Clients who "just want to see if they'll fold" need to be told, in writing, that day 41 is a one-way door.
[ ] If settlement is live, request suspension rather than letting deadlines slide. 37 C.F.R. § 2.117(c). A negotiated coexistence deal is usually the real outcome; see the Trademark Coexistence Agreement — Template.

Common Mistakes

Docketing from the watch alert rather than the Official Gazette. No tolling, no petition, no cure. 15 U.S.C. § 1063(a).
Letting the free thirty days lapse while the client "thinks about it." It costs nothing and buys a month. File it the day the file opens.
Opposing fewer classes than the client cares about. Unfixable after the window. 37 C.F.R. § 2.107(a).
Treating a Section 66(a) application like an ordinary one. Grounds and goods lock at filing, the ESTTA form defines the scope, and paper filings are refused outright. 37 C.F.R. §§ 2.102(a)(1), 2.107(b).
Omitting the status-and-title printout. One page under 37 C.F.R. § 2.122(d)(1) is the difference between a registration in evidence and a registration you must remember to offer in month twenty.
Attaching the evidence to the pleading. It is not evidence. 37 C.F.R. § 2.122(c). All you have done is disclose your case early.
Pleading a registration you have not audited. You have just made an attack on your own asset a compulsory counterclaim. 37 C.F.R. § 2.106(b)(3)(i).
Pleading dilution without general-public fame. Coach Services, 668 F.3d at 1373. It adds discovery, invites summary judgment, and telegraphs a weak § 2(d) count.
Pleading fraud because the applicant seems dishonest. In re Bose, 580 F.3d at 1245 requires deceptive intent, proven clearly and convincingly.
Underpaying the fee. ESTTA will not accept a short opposition, and the lowest-numbered classes eat the money first. 37 C.F.R. § 2.101(d).
Assuming five extra days for email service. There are none. 37 C.F.R. § 2.119(c).
Withdrawing after the answer without consent. With prejudice, permanently. 37 C.F.R. § 2.106(c).
Filing at the Board when the client wants sales stopped. The Board cannot order it. Fifteen minutes with Federal Court vs. TTAB saves six figures.

Deadlines at a Glance

| Deadline | Length | Runs from | Authority | |---|---|---|---| | Notice of opposition | 30 days | Publication in the Official Gazette | 15 U.S.C. § 1063(a); 37 C.F.R. § 2.101(c) | | First extension (free) | +30 days | Publication | 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c)(1) | | First extension, good cause | +90 days | Publication | 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c)(1) | | Additional extension, good cause | +60 days | End of the 30-day extension | 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c)(2) | | Final extension, consented | +60 days | End of the 90-day total | 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c)(3) | | Absolute ceiling | 180 days | Publication | 37 C.F.R. § 2.102(c) | | Letter of protest, post-publication | 30 days | Publication | 37 C.F.R. § 2.149 | | Answer | 40 days | Institution order | 37 C.F.R. § 2.106(a); TBMP § 310.03 | | Discovery conference | 70 days | Institution order | 37 C.F.R. § 2.120(a) | | Initial disclosures | 30 days | Opening of discovery | 37 C.F.R. § 2.120(a)(3) | | Discovery period | 180 days | Opening of discovery | 37 C.F.R. § 2.120(a)(3) | | Weekend/holiday rollover | Next business day | — | 37 C.F.R. § 2.196 |

What I would actually do. File the free extension the hour the file opens, before any analysis at all. Spend those thirty days investigating rather than drafting, because an opposition built on facts you have is worth five built on facts you assume. Over-plead classes and under-plead grounds. Pull the status-and-title copy the morning of filing and attach nothing else. Audit your own registrations before you name them. Put the identification restriction you actually want into the pleading as a Section 18 alternative, so the settlement conversation starts where you want it to end. And tell the client in writing, before institution, that day 41 closes the exit.