About the Course
Introduction
This CLE course will review TTAB and court treatment of fraud in the procurement and maintenance of trademark registrations. The panel will suggest best practices for trademark applicants, owners, and their counsel to mitigate the risk of findings of fraud arising from inaccurate recitations in trademark applications and post-registration maintenance filings.
Description
Many of the post-In re Bose rulings demonstrate the importance of avoiding complacency on the issue of fraud when applying for or maintaining trademark registrations. This is true in light of uncertainty in pre-Bose case law on the consequences of findings of fraud where multiple-class applications or registrations are concerned.
The USPTO has reiterated its commitment to combating both fraudulent trademark applications and improper maintenance of registrations on the Register. In August 2025, the USPTO terminated over 52,000 applications and registrations connected to a foreign filing firm as part of its ongoing efforts to eliminate fraudulent filings.
The expungement and reexamination procedures created by the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 provide an important alternative avenue for clearing the register of marks that should never have been registered, with a lower evidentiary burden of providing nonuse of a mark in U.S. commerce as opposed to fraudulent misrepresentation and an intent to deceive.
While Bose set a high bar in the context of inter partes proceedings, trademark owners and counsel should be aware that other federal courts may not apply the same strict standard as the Federal Circuit court. Opinions from those courts demonstrate that the risk of a finding of fraud remains a real one for trademark applicants and registrants alike.
Listen as our authoritative panel provides a brief overview of Bose and examines the subsequent treatment of fraud allegations by the USPTO since that decision at the TTAB and in the courts. The panel will also discuss proving fraud and defeating those allegations and suggest best practices for avoiding findings of fraudulent procurement and maintenance.
Presented By
For more than 38 years, Ms. Frandsen has guided clients not only through the core areas of trademark and copyright strategic counseling and portfolio management but also through the more complex areas of the practice, including enforcement before the federal courts and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). Her in-depth knowledge of her clients’ businesses, from individual entrepreneurs to major corporations, enables her to support and advance their unique objectives and goals and has made her their go-to trademark lawyer.
Ms. Grossberg leads Ice Miller’s Intellectual Property practice group and is an experienced intellectual property litigator, representing clients in patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and unfair competition matters in federal district and appellate courts, as well as in proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) and Section 337 investigations before the International Trade Commission (ITC). She works with clients to maximize the value of their intellectual property, with a focus on brand strategy, and has experience in trademark clearance, prosecution, global portfolio management and enforcement, and IP licensing and due diligence.
Ms. Lesser is a partner in Ice Miller’s Intellectual Property Group and the leader of the firm’s Advertising Group. She has more than two decades of experience as an IP counselor, and litigator, with a focus on trademarks, copyrights, marketing, advertising and publicity rights. Ms. Lesser litigates in federal courts throughout the country, and before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau (NAD), and the Copyright Claims Board (CCB). As an internationally ranked trademark attorney, she handles all facets of U.S. and international trademark protection, from clearance to procurement, enforcement and defense of rights. Ms. Lesser is a go-to counselor for protection and defense of copyright matters in federal court and before the CCB. A skilled counselor and negotiator, she has negotiated complex license agreements and settlement agreements for companies as varied as consumer products goods, pharmaceutical companies, to industrial equipment, and social media companies.
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
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Date + Time
- event
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
- schedule
1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT
I. TTAB and federal courts' treatment of pleading and proving fraudulent prosecution and maintenance
II. Defenses to fraud allegations
III. USPTO efforts to combat fraud
IV. Best practices to mitigate the risk of inaccurate applications and registrations and resulting findings of fraud
The panel will review these and other important issues:
- The applicable standards governing fraud claims and defenses
- How to leverage the current state of the case law
- Strategies and procedures to mitigate exposure to findings of fraud
Related Courses
Fraud in Trademark Applications and Registrations: Proving or Defeating Allegations
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT
