USPTO Should Address Risks to Its Pendency Reduction Efforts for Trademark Applications

For our final report on our audit of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) management of trademark pendency, our objective was to determine whether USPTO exercised effective oversight and management of trademark pendency. Specifically, we assessed USPTO’s development, monitoring, and reporting of trademark pendency measures, as well as the effectiveness of selected pendency reduction efforts. We found that despite some progress in reducing pendency from its highest levels, USPTO still needs to improve oversight of trademark application pendency. Specifically, we found that I. USPTO missed its pendency targets for multiple years and provided insufficient information in its reporting of pendency goals and results and II. USPTO’s projections of future pendency reduction may not be achievable.