I Federally Registered My Trademark, Now What?
You federally registered your trademark, but to keep the registration and all the benefits that come with a federal registration, you need to maintain and renew your registration and monitor and police infringers.
Maintain and Renew: Rights in a federally-registered trademark can last indefinitely if you continue to use that mark on or in connection with the goods and/or services in the registration and file all necessary documentation with the USPTO at the appropriate time. In general, the owner of a registration must periodically file an Affidavit of Continued Use or Excusable Nonuse, and an Application for Renewal. The USPTO will NOT remind you when these filings are due, so you must remember to track your trademark registration and these due dates or have trademark counsel do this for you.
Monitor and Police: Having your trademark federally registered is a great first step but this alone does not suffice in protecting your registration rights. You must monitor and police infringement and dilution, or in other words, any third party uses of the same trademark or confusingly similar versions that might cause confusion in the marketplace about the source of goods or services represented by the trademark. Failure to enforce or even late enforcement of your trademark rights can result in limited or complete loss of your rights against infringers.