Every deadline a US trademark can carry, what sets it running, how long it lasts, and whether anything saves you after it passes.
| Obligation | Triggered by | Window | Grace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office action response | Action issue date | 3 months (6 for Madrid) | One 3-month extension |
| Statement of use | Notice of allowance | 6 months | 5 extensions, 36 months max |
| Petition to revive | Notice of abandonment | 2 months | None |
| Opposition answer | Institution order | 40 days | Extensions on consent |
| Section 8 declaration | Registration date | Years 5–6 | 6 months, extra fee |
| Section 9 renewal | Registration date | Years 9–10, then every 10 | 6 months, extra fee |
| Section 71 affidavit | US registration date | Years 5–6, then every 10 | 6 months, extra fee |
| Section 15 | 5 years continuous use | No deadline | Optional entirely |
The two that behave differently
Petition to revive is the shortest at two months, and it is the only one triggered by a notice rather than by a date you could have calculated in advance. It appears without warning, on a file that is already in trouble.
Section 15 has no deadline at all. Nothing lapses if it is never filed — which is exactly why it is the most commonly skipped filing in US practice.
Grace periods are not extensions
A maintenance grace period keeps the registration alive for six months at extra cost. It is not more time to decide; it is a surcharge for being late. And it is the last thing standing between the registration and permanent cancellation.
Working backwards from the deadline
A deadline on a calendar is a date. A deadline on a working docket is a short sequence of earlier dates, because almost nothing can be filed on the day it is remembered. The lead times that matter are the ones involving somebody who does not work for you.
A Section 8 needs a specimen showing current use, and the specimen comes from the client. That is a request, a reply, a look at what came back, and often a second request because the first thing sent was a logo on an invoice rather than the mark as used on the goods. Sixty days before the window closes is comfortable; two weeks is not.
A statement of use has the same dependency with higher stakes, because it also requires the mark to actually be in commerce on the goods listed. Finding out that it is not, a fortnight out, leaves the choice between a narrowed identification and an extension — and only one of those is still available if the fifth extension has been used.
An office action response may need evidence, a consent agreement, or an argument the client has to approve. Three months sounds generous and stops sounding generous once a consent negotiation with another party is in it.
Two entries, not one
The practical habit that follows is to docket every deadline twice: the statutory date, which is fixed and not yours to move, and an internal date some weeks earlier that is when the work actually starts. The second is the one people act on; the first is the one that protects you when they do not.
Keep them visibly different on the calendar — different naming, different colour — because the failure mode is a team that learns the dates are padded and starts treating the real one as negotiable too. The internal date is when it should be done. The statutory date is when it must be, and nothing about it can be discussed.
Put it where you look
A table on a web page is a reference. Your own dates belong in your own calendar — see the .ics feed.