
In May 2025, the USPTO noted that over 50,000 goods and services were canceled using ex parte expungement and reexamination proceedings. The majority of cancellations came from proceedings instituted on the Director’s own initiative against registrations linked to specimen farms. Some filing firms built these e-commerce websites solely to create fake specimens of use, but the marks were never actually used in commerce.
In May 2025, the USPTO noted that over 50,000 goods and services were canceled using ex parte expungement and reexamination proceedings. The majority of cancellations came from proceedings instituted on the Director’s own initiative against registrations linked to specimen farms. Some filing firms built these e-commerce websites solely to create fake specimens of use, but the marks were never actually used in commerce.