A U.S. trademark registration doesn't last on its own. Between the fifth and sixth anniversaries of registration the owner has to file a Section 8 declaration that the mark is still in use, with a specimen and a fee. If it doesn't arrive by the end of a six-month grace period, the registration is cancelled.
We took every U.S. registration issued in 2018 — 253,967 of them — and checked what happened at that first deadline. For all of them, the deadline and the grace period had passed by mid-2025.
The Headline: More Lost Than Kept
| 2018 U.S. registrations | Share |
|---|---|
| Section 8 accepted, in full or in part — kept | 45.6% |
| Cancelled under Section 8 — lost | 53.4% |
| Ended another way (surrendered, cancelled on other grounds) | 1.0% |
A cancellation isn't always a loss. A business that closed, or a product line that was dropped, has no use to declare, and letting the registration go is the honest choice. The data can't separate those owners from the ones who simply missed the window. What it does show is who keeps their registrations, and that pattern is striking.
Who Keeps Their Registrations
| Owner at registration | Registrations | Kept | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporation | 85,636 | 53.5% | 45.7% |
| Limited Liability Company | 81,659 | 44.3% | 54.8% |
| Individual | 42,725 | 33.8% | 65.0% |
| Sole Proprietorship | 1,890 | 28.5% | 70.3% |
| Limited Partnership | 1,538 | 60.4% | 39.1% |
| Partnership | 731 | 43.4% | 55.8% |
| Other (an entity statement should appear) | 36,947 | 43.6% | 55.5% |
Corporations kept more than half of their 2018 registrations. Individuals kept about a third, and sole proprietorships fewer still. The records don't say why. One thing is certain from the USPTO's own guidance: its courtesy reminder goes only to the email address on file, and a missed reminder doesn't extend the deadline. ("Other" covers owners who described their entity in their own words, which the USPTO records as a separate category.)
Where the Owner Is Based
| Owner's address | Registrations | Kept | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 184,653 | 47.7% | 51.4% |
| China | 38,949 | 37.7% | 61.2% |
| Other countries | 30,365 | 43.1% | 55.9% |
Registrations owned from mainland China (address country CN, 15.3% of the 2018 cohort) were cancelled more often than those of U.S. owners. The records don't say why, so we don't speculate; Hong Kong and Taiwan owners are counted under other countries.
Broader Registrations Last Longer
| Registration | Registrations | Kept | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|
| One class | 212,615 | 44.5% | 54.6% |
| Two classes | 26,827 | 50.1% | 49.1% |
| Three or more classes | 14,389 | 54.3% | 45.0% |
| Word mark (standard characters) | 178,938 | 46.4% | 52.7% |
| Logo with words | 51,816 | 43.1% | 56.0% |
| Design only, no words | 8,985 | 50.2% | 49.3% |
| Stylized words | 14,059 | 42.4% | 56.4% |
| Filed on use — 1(a) | 154,691 | 46.1% | 53.0% |
| Filed on intent to use — 1(b) | 92,414 | 45.4% | 53.6% |
| Filed on a foreign right — Section 44 | 5,960 | 37.5% | 61.5% |
Multi-class registrations were kept noticeably more often. Whether a mark was filed on use or on intent to use made almost no difference once it was registered. Registrations based on a foreign right (Section 44), whose owners are based outside the United States, were cancelled most often.
By Class
Single-class registrations only, classes with at least 300 registrations, sorted from most to least often kept:
| Class | What it covers | Registrations | Kept | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chemicals | 1,991 | 62.8% | 36.6% |
| 13 | Firearms & fireworks | 822 | 61.2% | 38.2% |
| 19 | Non-metal building materials | 1,247 | 59.5% | 39.8% |
| 17 | Rubber & plastics | 800 | 58.4% | 41.4% |
| 7 | Machines & tools | 2,945 | 57.9% | 41.7% |
| 6 | Metal goods | 1,473 | 57.6% | 41.6% |
| 2 | Paints & coatings | 599 | 57.4% | 42.2% |
| 33 | Wine & spirits | 3,882 | 56.5% | 42.3% |
| 31 | Fresh produce & pet food | 1,749 | 56.0% | 43.1% |
| 40 | Treatment of materials | 1,041 | 52.4% | 46.8% |
| 15 | Musical instruments | 469 | 51.6% | 48.0% |
| 36 | Finance, insurance & real estate | 7,712 | 51.6% | 47.4% |
| 12 | Vehicles | 3,067 | 51.5% | 47.2% |
| 10 | Medical devices | 3,978 | 48.9% | 50.0% |
| 37 | Construction & repair | 2,846 | 48.3% | 51.2% |
| 22 | Ropes & textiles (raw) | 633 | 47.6% | 51.8% |
| 43 | Restaurants & lodging | 5,588 | 47.6% | 51.1% |
| 8 | Hand tools & cutlery | 1,979 | 47.2% | 51.5% |
| 27 | Carpets & floor coverings | 630 | 47.1% | 51.9% |
| 11 | Lighting, heating & appliances | 5,944 | 46.6% | 52.6% |
| 29 | Meat, dairy & prepared foods | 2,783 | 46.6% | 52.2% |
| 16 | Paper & printed goods | 4,708 | 46.5% | 52.6% |
| 28 | Toys, games & sporting goods | 7,859 | 46.4% | 52.7% |
| 39 | Transport & travel | 1,670 | 46.3% | 52.8% |
| 20 | Furniture | 3,877 | 45.6% | 53.5% |
| 32 | Beer & non-alcoholic drinks | 3,653 | 45.0% | 53.4% |
| 45 | Legal & personal services | 2,934 | 44.8% | 54.6% |
| 5 | Pharmaceuticals & supplements | 6,803 | 44.7% | 54.2% |
| 30 | Coffee, bakery & staples | 5,394 | 44.7% | 54.4% |
| 38 | Telecommunications | 979 | 44.7% | 54.6% |
| 4 | Oils, fuels & candles | 630 | 44.4% | 54.8% |
| 44 | Medical & beauty services | 5,223 | 44.3% | 54.8% |
| 42 | Technology & software services | 9,343 | 44.1% | 55.2% |
| 41 | Education & entertainment | 19,146 | 43.5% | 55.8% |
| 35 | Advertising, business & retail | 16,759 | 43.3% | 55.9% |
| 14 | Jewelry & watches | 3,616 | 42.1% | 57.2% |
| 9 | Software, electronics & apps | 24,828 | 41.6% | 57.5% |
| 26 | Lace, ribbons & hair accessories | 1,433 | 41.5% | 58.0% |
| 3 | Cosmetics & cleaning | 7,740 | 41.3% | 57.5% |
| 24 | Textiles & bedding | 2,299 | 41.0% | 58.0% |
| 34 | Tobacco & vaping | 1,199 | 39.1% | 59.9% |
| 21 | Housewares | 5,979 | 39.0% | 60.0% |
| 18 | Leather goods & bags | 4,011 | 35.6% | 63.1% |
| 25 | Clothing, footwear & headwear | 19,913 | 35.5% | 63.3% |
Industrial classes — chemicals, building materials, machinery, firearms — kept their registrations most often. Consumer classes with many small brands sit at the bottom: clothing, leather goods and bags, housewares, cosmetics. If you sell in one of those classes, registrations like yours were the most likely to lapse, so put the deadline on a calendar the day the certificate arrives. Our deadline calculator gives you a calendar file with every maintenance date.
How We Counted
- Who's counted: every registration issued from January 1 to December 31, 2018 on a U.S. application. Madrid Protocol registrations (Section 66(a), serial numbers starting with 79) are excluded because they're maintained under Section 71, not Section 8.
- Kept: the prosecution history shows a Section 8 declaration accepted in full or in part (event codes 8.OK, 8.PR, C15A, C15P).
- Cancelled: the history shows a cancellation under Section 8 at the six-year deadline (C8..) and no acceptance.
- Owner: the registrant recorded at registration (or the applicant if no registrant entry exists), with the USPTO's legal entity type codes and the owner's address country.
- Filing basis: as filed. Data: USPTO bulk files through September 30, 2026.
- What the data can't show: why a registration was let go. A business that stopped using a mark and an owner who forgot produce the same record.
- USPTO Open Data Portal: Trademark Full Text XML, daily applications (TRTDXFAP)
- USPTO Open Data Portal: Trademark Full Text XML, annual backfile (TRTYRAP)
- Public research copy of both files used for the counts (illeatmyhat/uspto-trademarks)
- USPTO Office of the Chief Economist: Trademark Case Files Dataset (event code descriptions)
- USPTO: Trademark Applications Daily XML documentation v2.0 (legal entity type codes)
- 15 U.S.C. § 1058: Section 8 declarations and the six-month grace period
- USPTO: Keeping your registration alive — courtesy reminders and maintenance deadlines
Bulk data is updated daily by the USPTO; figures here are fixed at September 30, 2026. They are our calculations, not statistics published by the USPTO. Links checked 19 October 2026.