In Brief: A trademark owner cannot rely on its own failures to excuse abandonment.

In Brief: When manufacturing stops, cancellation of a trademark is not far behind.

In Brief:  Abandoned trademarks may have a life beyond abandonment.

Mondelez International Inc. owns a lot of trademarks. One of them is “Chiclets” for gum. Mondelez almost lost it.

If you don’t use your trademark, someone else can claim priority over you. %CUT% SPV Coach Company, Inc. filed a trademark application for ARMBRUSTER STAGEWAY in connection with vehicles, namely, customized limousines. Executive Coach Builders, Inc. opposed registration claiming that it had started using the mark before SPV and so had priority of use. The TTAB denied the opposition holding that Executive Coach had abandoned the mark. Further, Executive Coach couldn’t prove that it had any intent to resume use of the mark once it was abandoned. The TTAB cited Executive Coach’s lack of any documentary evidence and the inconsistent and contradictory testimony of its president to support the abandonment ruling. Executive Coach’s alleged use of the abandoned mark was isolated and de minimus. Executive Coach took no orders for branded vehicles. Executive Coach’s domain name didn’t identify the goods or services. Displays at Executive Coach’s plant merely showed historical and not current use of the trademark. So, SPV had priority because of its constructive use of the mark after Executive Coach’s abandonment.