The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recently released its TTAB filing statistics for fiscal year 2018.   These updated figures include year-to-year changes in the filing of appeals, notices of oppositions, and petitions for cancellations.  It also provides useful information on the disposition of cases.

Highlights include the following:  (percentage in parentheses signifies change over 2017)

A trademark opposition may be filed based on one of several grounds.   This includes that the mark is merely descriptive and should be refused registration pursuant to Section 2(e)(1) of the Trademark Act.

A trademark is assessed on a continuum of legal strength.  The strongest trademarks (and thus most eligible for trademark protection) are arbitrary