Dear TMCH users,
We would like to inform you of changes that will be made in regards to the POU revalidation process. Starting September 12th 2022, the introduction of the ‘EXPIRED’ POU status will take effect, leading to revocation of your SMD file.
We kindly remind you that the POU revalidation is a mandatory process for each Sunrise eligible trademark record in the Trademark Clearinghouse. The Proof Of Use documentation (signed declaration and sample of use) expires 5 years after its submission and needs to be revalidated in order to be eligible for our Sunrise service. Currently, a POU that has expired and is not revalidated/invalidated, retains its’ ‘VALID’ POU status, however, the SMD file can no longer be used for Sunrise services. Therefore, we have implemented the below changes which will provide you with a clear view of your expired POUs thus allowing you to fully benefit from our Sunrise Services.
As of 2022-09-12:
1) Besides the existing notifications sent regarding the revalidation of the POU (60 and 30 days before POU expiry), we will send a notification 30 days after POU expiry informing you of the upcoming ‘EXPIRED’ POU status. If no action is taken within the following 30 days (60 days after POU expiry) the POU status will automatically change to ‘EXPIRED’ and the associated SMD file will be revoked.
2) Although the POU status is ‘EXPIRED’, you may still review the currently associated POU docs, and you are still able to invalidate or revalidate following the existing process. A sorting/filter option will be added to the POU revalidation page to distinguish the mark records with a ‘VALID’ and a ‘EXPIRED’ POU status.
Please note that if you have a POU that is already 30 days or more past the POU expiration date, you will receive a notification on 2022-08-12, giving you 30 days to revalidate/invalidate your POU. If no action is taken before 2022-09-12, your POU status will automatically change to ‘EXPIRED’ and your SMD file will be revoked.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to via our customer support system.
Kind regards,
The TMCH Team
