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As highlighted with a recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office notice (available HERE), the Trademark Technical and Conforming Amendment Act of 2010 (Pub. Law No. 111-146, 124 Stat. 66 (2010)) became effective on March 17, 2010. As referenced in the notice, significant changes were made to Sections 8 and 71 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§1058 and 1141k, respectively), as well as minor technical changes to Sections 7, 15, and 21 (15 U.S.C. §§ 1057, 1065 and 1071, respectively). These changes relate to post registration maintenance filings required under the Act, whereby now owners may correct any deficiencies in such filings outside of the statutory period for filing them if they pay a surcharge relating to the deficiency, which now includes instances where affidavits were not filed in the name of the owner of the registration. In addition, and as referenced in the notice, "owners of U.S. registrations under the Madrid Protocol now have the benefit of six-month grace periods immediately following the statutory time periods," whereby "[p]reviously, no grace period existed at the end of the six-year period following the date of registration in the U.S. and only a three-month grace period existed following the expiration of each successive 10-year period following registration." Additional information is available on the USPTO?s "Trademarks - keeping a registration" webpage (available HERE), with the text of amended Sections 8 and 71 of the Lanham Act available HERE.

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