Warehousing of Trademarks Law and Legal Definition
Warehousing of trademarks is the practice of making periodic, ‘token use’ of a mark over time, with no present intention to commercially exploit the mark. Earlier, warehousing was used to secure early priority rights in a mark without actually using the mark. Now, warehousing is used to circumvent the law of trademark abandonment which states that a mark is abandoned, and cannot be protected, when the owner discontinues its use with no intent to resume use in the reasonably foreseeable future. Technically, ‘token use’ is insufficient use to establish trademark rights. However, circumvention of the actual use requirement is normally hard to detect.
