Trademark Portfolio Management (UAE)

Registering a trademark is a single filing event that results in one certificate for one mark in one or more classes. Portfolio management is the ongoing administration of everything after that first certificate — and of every subsequent mark the business files. It covers renewal tracking across all marks, watch monitoring of the UAE Trademarks Journal for conflicting filings, recording licences and assignments, and periodically reviewing whether the registered classes still match what the business actually does. If you only ever expect to hold one mark, you may not need portfolio management. Most businesses with more than a couple of marks, or with franchise/licensing arrangements, benefit from having it managed centrally.

A UAE trademark registration under Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 is valid for 10 years from the filing date, and can be renewed indefinitely for further 10-year terms provided the renewal is filed within the prescribed timeframe. Renewal must generally be filed before expiry; a grace period is typically available after expiry subject to an additional fee, but relying on the grace period as a default plan is not advisable — if both the renewal window and the grace period are missed, the registration can lapse and its priority date is lost.

Trademarks in the UAE are registered and administered by the Trademarks Department within the Ministry of Economy (operating under the current Ministry of Economy and Tourism structure), under Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021 on Trademarks and its implementing regulations. This is a federal system — a UAE trademark registration protects the mark across the entire UAE, not just the emirate where the applicant's licence is based.

No. A UAE trademark registration only protects the mark within the UAE. There is no single unified GCC-wide trademark registration system currently in force comparable to, for example, the EU Trade Mark. If you want protection in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, or Qatar, you generally need to file separately in each of those jurisdictions through their own respective trademark offices, or via any applicable international treaty route your home jurisdiction supports (such as the Madrid Protocol, where available). GCC expansion should be planned as a distinct filing strategy, not assumed to follow automatically from UAE registration.

New trademark applications accepted for registration are published in the official Trademarks Journal, opening a statutory window during which any third party — including an existing mark owner — can file a formal opposition if they believe the new mark conflicts with their own rights. A trademark watch service monitors these publications on an ongoing basis and flags any application that could conflict with the client's existing registered marks, so a decision on whether to oppose can be made while the window is still open. Without a watch service, businesses typically only discover a conflicting registration after the window has closed — at which point the only recourse is a more difficult and costly cancellation action rather than a straightforward opposition.

There is no fixed threshold, but in practice, once a business holds three or more marks, or a single mark across multiple classes, or has any licensing/franchise arrangement tied to the brand, the coordination overhead of tracking everything independently starts to exceed the cost of a managed retainer. Businesses with a single mark and no expansion plans are usually better served by a standalone registration and, later, a standalone renewal — portfolio management can always be added once the portfolio actually grows.

The Nice Classification is the international system of 45 classes (1–34 for goods, 35–45 for services) used to categorise the goods and services covered by a trademark application. A registration only protects the mark for the specific class(es) filed. A business that registers its name in Class 35 (business/advertising services) but later launches a Class 43 (restaurant/hospitality) offering under the same name has no trademark protection for that new activity unless a separate application is filed in Class 43. Portfolio management includes periodically checking that registered classes still match actual and planned business activity.

Yes. If your business licenses its mark to a franchisee, distributor, or a related group entity, that arrangement should generally be formally recorded with the UAE Trademarks Department to be fully enforceable against third parties. An unrecorded licence weakens your legal position if a dispute arises with the licensee or with a third party infringing the mark, and can also complicate the documentation trail for related-party royalty arrangements under UAE Corporate Tax transfer pricing requirements. Recording the licence is a discrete filing, separate from the original registration.

If a UAE trademark registration is not renewed within the standard renewal window and the subsequent grace period (where applicable, subject to an additional fee) also lapses, the registration is at risk of being removed from the register. Once removed, the mark's priority date and registration are lost, and in principle a third party could file for and obtain rights in the same or a similar mark. Reviving a lapsed registration, where possible at all, is a more complex and costly process than a timely renewal, and there is no guarantee it can be revived once fully lapsed.

Yes. PNPC operates from Dubai as well as Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, and for clients with a group structure spanning both jurisdictions, we coordinate the UAE portfolio (under Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2021, filed with the Ministry of Economy) alongside the India portfolio (under the Trade Marks Act 1999, filed with the Trade Marks Registry) as one coordinated engagement. This avoids the common failure mode of two disconnected advisors in two countries with no shared view of the group's overall brand protection.

UAE trademark government fees are set by the Ministry of Economy's current fee schedule and vary by the type of filing (new application, renewal, opposition, recordal) and the number of classes covered. Because fee schedules are periodically updated by the Ministry, we do not quote a fixed figure here — we confirm the current applicable government fee for each specific filing at the time of engagement, in addition to our professional fee for the work involved.

Processing times depend on the Ministry of Economy's current workload, whether the mark is accepted without objection at examination, whether it proceeds to publication without opposition, and how promptly any office actions are responded to. As a general practical range, an uncontested application with no examination objections typically takes several months from filing to final registration, but this can extend meaningfully if an objection is raised at examination or if a third party files an opposition during the publication window. We give clients realistic, case-specific timeline guidance rather than a fixed promise, since much of the timeline is outside any agent's direct control.

Yes. UAE trademark registration is not conditional on the applicant holding a UAE trade licence — a foreign entity with no UAE establishment can file and hold a UAE trademark registration, typically acting through a locally authorised trademark agent under a Power of Attorney. This is common for international brands protecting their name in the UAE market ahead of, or independent of, an actual UAE market entry.

A trademark squatter is a party that registers a well-known or soon-to-launch brand name in a jurisdiction ahead of the actual brand owner, typically with the intent of later selling the registration back to the legitimate owner or blocking their market entry. This is a recognised commercial risk in fast-growing markets including the UAE, particularly for international brands that delay local filing while building recognition elsewhere. Registering early — even defensively, ahead of full market entry — is the standard mitigation.

An assignment is a permanent transfer of ownership of the mark from one party to another — the assignor no longer owns the mark after the assignment is complete. A licence is a grant of permission to use the mark for a defined period, territory, and purpose, while ownership remains with the original owner (the licensor). Franchise and distribution arrangements are typically structured as licences, not assignments, because the brand owner wants to retain control of the mark. Both assignments and licences should generally be formally recorded with the UAE Trademarks Department to be enforceable against third parties.

It can, particularly for group structures where one entity owns the brand and licenses it to related operating entities in exchange for royalty payments. Under UAE Corporate Tax, related-party transactions — including intra-group royalty arrangements — are subject to transfer pricing rules requiring the arrangement to reflect arm's length terms, with supporting documentation. A properly recorded, well-documented trademark licence with defensible royalty terms supports the deductibility and transfer pricing position of the payment; an informal or unrecorded arrangement is a weaker position to defend if queried by the Federal Tax Authority.

The registered owner of a UAE trademark has the right to take legal action against infringement, which can include civil claims for damages and injunctive relief, as well as, in appropriate cases, criminal complaints under the Trademarks Law for counterfeiting. Enforcement typically begins with a formal cease-and-desist notice, and if that does not resolve the matter, proceeds to the relevant UAE courts. Evidence of your registration, the date of first use, and the extent of the infringement all matter to building a strong enforcement position.

A combined logo-plus-wordmark can be filed as a single composite mark, but this generally protects the combination as it appears — not the wordmark alone or the logo alone. Most portfolio strategies register the wordmark and the logo as separate marks precisely so that each element is independently protected and either can be used, updated, or licensed on its own without affecting the other's registration.

We conduct a full intake audit — pulling the actual registration certificates, application numbers, and correspondence history for every existing mark, regardless of who filed it originally. This lets us verify current status directly with the Trademarks Department rather than relying on the client's or the previous agent's records, which is how we catch silent lapses or unresolved office actions during onboarding.

A Power of Attorney (PoA) is a document authorising a trademark agent or advisor to file and act on the applicant's behalf before the UAE Trademarks Department. It is required for most filings, renewals, and recordals unless the applicant is filing directly. Depending on the applicant's jurisdiction and corporate structure, the PoA may need to be notarised and, for foreign entities, legalised before it is accepted.

Renewal itself is not generally contingent on demonstrating use under current UAE practice, unlike some other jurisdictions that require use declarations. However, a registered mark that has not been put to genuine use in the UAE for a continuous period can, in principle, be vulnerable to a non-use cancellation action brought by a third party under the applicable provisions of the Trademarks Law. Maintaining basic evidence of use — invoices, marketing material, packaging — is good practice even where not required at renewal.

Not necessarily separate registrations, but the ownership and use structure needs to be deliberate. Typically, one entity (often a holding company or the original operating entity) owns the registered mark, and other group entities use it under a recorded intra-group licence. This avoids ambiguity about which entity actually owns the brand asset, which matters for valuation, financing, tax, and any future restructuring or exit.

We scope portfolio management as an annual retainer, priced based on the number of marks and classes currently held, the number of jurisdictions being tracked, and the level of watch-service coverage required. Individual actions that arise during the year — a new filing, a renewal, an opposition, a recordal — are quoted and agreed separately as they come up, so the retainer covers the ongoing monitoring and calendar management rather than every possible future filing at an unknown scope. We confirm the fee structure in writing before the engagement begins.

Yes. Portfolio management is an ongoing service, not a multi-year lock-in, and clients can move back to ad-hoc, matter-by-matter engagement if their portfolio shrinks or their needs change. We recommend against doing so while any mark has an upcoming renewal or an active watch flag, simply so nothing falls through the transition.

We maintain a secure, current file for each mark: the registration certificate, filing history, renewal dates, any correspondence with the Trademarks Department, recorded licences/assignments, and watch-service flags raised over time. This file is what makes a due-diligence export or an urgent status check possible on short notice, rather than requiring reconstruction from scattered records each time something is needed.

Trademark filings before the UAE Ministry of Economy require representation by a licensed trademark agent registered with the Ministry. PNPC coordinates the full engagement — intake, strategy, class analysis, document preparation, and ongoing portfolio management — and works with the appropriate licensed trademark agent for the formal filing steps that require that specific registration, so the client has a single point of contact managing the entire process end to end.

Without registration, you generally have no exclusive statutory right to prevent a third party from using or registering an identical or similar mark in the UAE, beyond whatever limited protection may exist for well-known marks or under unfair competition principles — both of which are harder and costlier to invoke than a straightforward registered-trademark infringement claim. An unregistered brand is also a weaker asset in any future sale, investment, or franchise negotiation, since there is no formally documented, transferable right underlying the brand name being valued.

The two are administratively separate — trademark renewals are filed with the Ministry of Economy, while Corporate Tax returns and VAT filings go to the Federal Tax Authority — but for group structures with intra-group royalty flows tied to the trademark, we cross-reference the two calendars so that the trademark licence documentation supporting a royalty deduction is current and consistent with what is reported in the Corporate Tax filing for the same period.

Trademarks are transferable assets. On a sale of the business (whether as a share sale, where the entity and its assets including the trademark transfer with it, or an asset sale, where the mark is specifically assigned), the trademark ownership needs to be reflected accurately — either automatically via the entity transfer, or via a formal assignment recordal filed with the Trademarks Department for an asset-level transfer. We prepare and file the necessary assignment or ownership-update paperwork as part of restructuring or exit support.

Registered trademarks are recognised intangible assets and can, in principle, be used as security in financing arrangements, subject to the lender's own policies and the specific security documentation used. This is less common than tangible-asset-backed lending in the UAE market, but is increasingly considered for IP-heavy or brand-driven businesses. Any such arrangement should be properly documented and, where relevant, recorded to be effective against third parties.

For clients on an active portfolio management retainer, we prioritise urgent watch-related matters — a conflicting Journal publication approaching its opposition deadline, or a self-reported infringement — and aim to assess and advise within a short, agreed turnaround so any statutory deadline is not put at risk. The exact response commitment is confirmed in the engagement scope.

Trademark registration itself is always a federal matter handled by the Ministry of Economy — free zones do not operate their own separate trademark registries. Some businesses conflate their free zone trade licence registration with trademark protection, but these are entirely different systems; a free zone trade name reservation does not confer the same exclusive rights as a Ministry of Economy trademark registration. Part of our intake process is confirming whether a client actually holds a registered trademark at all, versus only a trade name reservation with their licensing authority.

A mark that is purely descriptive of the goods or services it covers, or that consists of generic terms, can be refused registration by the Trademarks Department examiner, or if registered, may be more vulnerable to challenge. Similarly, an overly broad specification of goods/services that does not reflect actual use can be challenged on non-use grounds over time. We advise on mark distinctiveness and appropriately scoped class specifications at the filing stage to reduce both risks.

A dedicated IP law firm is a perfectly valid choice, particularly for complex litigation or highly technical patent and IP matters. PNPC's advantage for many UAE businesses is integration: your trademark portfolio, your Corporate Tax and VAT compliance, your accounting, and — for groups with an India connection — your India-side filings and compliance are all visible to the same advisory team. Points that fall between silos elsewhere — an unrecorded royalty licence weakening a tax position, or a UAE filing disconnected from an India filing for the same brand — are things we catch precisely because we are not operating in a single-discipline silo.

A full initial audit of all existing marks and applications; a consolidated renewal calendar with proactive reminders; ongoing UAE Trademarks Journal watch monitoring against the client's mark portfolio; periodic (typically annual) review of class coverage against actual business activity; coordination of licence, franchise, and assignment recordals; and a due-diligence-ready portfolio export available on request. New filings, oppositions, and GCC/international expansion filings are scoped and quoted separately as they arise, since these depend on decisions the client makes over the course of the year.

Trademark portfolio records — registration certificates, ownership structures, licensing terms, and any pending dispute information — are held under the same client confidentiality standards PNPC applies to its broader accounting and advisory engagements, with access limited to the team members directly serving the client's file.

Generally no, or only partially. A UAE registration protects the mark as filed. Cosmetic changes that do not alter the distinctive character of the mark may still be covered in practice, but a genuine redesign — a new logo device, a materially different stylisation, a dropped or added word — is a different mark that the existing registration does not reliably protect. The safe course when rebranding is to file the new mark rather than assume the old registration stretches to cover it, while keeping the old registration alive if the legacy mark is still in use anywhere (on old stock, legacy contracts, or historic goodwill).

Renewal dates in the UAE run from each mark's own filing/registration date, so marks filed years apart genuinely fall due in different years — there is no mechanism to merge them into a single renewal date. What portfolio management does is consolidate the visibility, not the dates: every expiry sits on one calendar with lead-time reminders, so a portfolio with, say, six marks expiring across four different years is managed as one workstream rather than six independent deadlines nobody is centrally tracking. Where several marks happen to fall due close together, we can batch the filings administratively to reduce PoA and coordination overhead, even though the statutory dates themselves cannot be aligned.

Yes, and for many consumer-facing UAE brands it is worth doing. An English (Latin-script) registration and an Arabic-script version of the same brand are treated as distinct marks and are best covered by separate registrations, because protecting the Latin form does not automatically protect a transliterated or translated Arabic form that a copycat could adopt for the same local market. Whether the Arabic version should be a phonetic transliteration or a meaning-based translation is a branding as well as a legal decision — the two can point at different marks. We flag Arabic-mark coverage as a specific gap-analysis item for brands selling to a local Arabic-speaking customer base.

We take a plain-language description of everything the business currently sells or does — and what it plans to launch in the next 12 to 24 months — and map each activity to the Nice class that would protect it, then compare that against the classes actually registered. The output is a short schedule showing, per mark: classes registered, classes the activity needs, and the delta. A common finding is a brand registered only for its original product class (say Class 25, clothing) that has since added a Class 3 cosmetics line or a Class 43 café under the same name with no protection there. We then scope filings to close the material gaps rather than reflexively filing every theoretically adjacent class, which would inflate cost and create non-use exposure.

The retainer covers detecting and triaging it — flagging the office action or opposition, assessing the merits, and advising on options within the response deadline. Actually drafting and filing the substantive response (an argued reply to an examiner's objection, or a defence to an opposition) is a scoped matter quoted separately, because the effort varies enormously between a routine specification amendment and a fully argued likelihood-of-confusion defence. What the retainer guarantees is that the deadline is never missed for want of monitoring — the objection is on our radar and triaged well before the response window closes, which is where self-managed portfolios most often come unstuck.

You should never rely on receiving a reliable, timely reminder from the authority as your renewal safety net. The registered owner (or its agent) is responsible for tracking deadlines; official publication in the Trademarks Journal is deemed notice for opposition and related purposes, and correspondence routes through the agent of record rather than always reaching the business owner directly. This is precisely why a mark can lapse 'silently' — nobody at the business was individually chased, and the statutory clock ran regardless. A managed renewal calendar exists to replace reliance on any assumed authority reminder.

Before you commit: confirm the mark is actually registered (not merely applied-for or a trade-name reservation) in every class the franchise will operate in; confirm it is registered in the correct owning entity; and structure the licence so it is recordable with the Trademarks Department to be enforceable against third parties. You also want the royalty terms documented on arm's-length principles from the outset, because an intra-group or franchise royalty tied to the mark will need to stand up under UAE Corporate Tax transfer pricing review. Signing a franchise deal over an unregistered, wrong-entity, or wrong-class mark is a problem that is far cheaper to catch before signature than to unwind after.

The honest answer is that it splits into two predictable and one variable component. The retainer (monitoring, renewal calendar, watch, annual review) is a fixed, foreseeable annual cost scaled to mark count and jurisdictions. Renewals are foreseeable too — you know years in advance which marks fall due when, so those can be budgeted rather than sprung on you. The variable layer is reactive filings: new-class filings as you expand, oppositions when a watch flag warrants one, and recordals when you license or assign. We separate government/official fees from professional fees in every quote and confirm the current official fee against the Ministry schedule at the time of each filing, since those are periodically revised.

It is not necessarily hopeless, but the straightforward route — opposition during the publication window — is gone, and what remains is harder and costlier. Depending on the facts, options can include a cancellation/invalidity action against the registered mark (for example on grounds of an earlier right, bad faith, or non-use once the relevant non-use period has run), a negotiated coexistence or buy-out, or in some cases relying on well-known-mark or unfair-competition arguments. Each is more evidence-intensive and slower than an opposition would have been. We assess which route is viable on the specific facts and coordinate with litigation counsel where a contested action is required.

Yes on recordal — an assignment (permanent transfer of ownership) should be recorded with the Trademarks Department so the register reflects the true owner; an unrecorded assignment leaves the register showing the wrong entity, which creates problems on any later financing, sale, or dispute. On tax, moving a valuable brand between related entities is not a neutral bookkeeping step: it can carry transfer pricing implications under UAE Corporate Tax (the transfer and any resulting royalty flow should reflect arm's-length terms with supporting documentation), and it interacts with which entity should hold the IP for the group's broader structure. Because PNPC handles both the recordal and the tax view, we scope the two together rather than filing the assignment blind to its Corporate Tax consequences.

We own the standing portfolio spine — the renewal calendar, watch monitoring, class reviews, and recordals — and hand contested matters to your litigation counsel when a watch flag or infringement escalates into a genuine dispute. The coordination point is that while a dispute is live, the rest of the estate still needs its renewals filed and its watch flags triaged; we keep that running so the portfolio is not neglected while attention is on the one contested mark. We are explicit at the outset that we are not competing for litigation work — that division of labour is agreed upfront to avoid friction later.

A recurring shortlist: a mark the client believed was registered that had in fact lapsed or been abandoned for an unanswered office action; class coverage that matches the original business plan but not what the company sells today; the flagship wordmark protected but the actual logo (or its Arabic rendering) unprotected; intra-group or franchise use of the mark that was never recorded as a licence; the mark registered in the wrong group entity; and renewals with no owner because the original filing agent has since dropped out of the picture. None of these are exotic — they are the predictable result of years of ad-hoc filing with no central tracking, which is exactly what the audit exists to surface.

It materially strengthens your hand. A UAE registration is the foundation for customs and marketplace enforcement — it is the right you point to when recording your mark for border-protection purposes against counterfeit imports, and it is the basis for takedown requests to online marketplaces that require proof of a registered right. Without a registration, both routes are much weaker: you are relying on harder-to-invoke well-known-mark or unfair-competition arguments rather than a clean registered-right infringement claim. Where enforcement against counterfeits is a live concern, we make sure the register and use-evidence file are in shape to support customs recordal and marketplace takedowns.

A raw watch feed produces far more hits than are worth opposing — similar-looking marks in unrelated classes, marks for genuinely different goods, coincidental name overlaps in non-competing sectors. We triage each flag against the client's actual marks: class overlap, similarity of the marks and of the goods/services, the strength and distinctiveness of the client's earlier right, and the commercial reality of whether the new mark actually threatens the client's market. Only flags that clear that filter get escalated as a real opposition decision with a deadline; the rest are logged and dismissed with a note. The point of the service is a small number of genuinely actionable alerts within their windows, not a monthly list of noise.

Current enough to show genuine use in the UAE across the relevant look-back period for the classes in question. A non-use cancellation action attacks a registered mark on the basis that it has not been genuinely used for a continuous statutory period; the defence is contemporaneous evidence of real commercial use — dated invoices, packaging, advertising, and sales in the UAE for the goods/services in the challenged classes. Evidence that is thin, undated, or only shows use in unrelated classes is a weak defence. This is why we advise maintaining a rolling use-evidence file per active mark rather than scrambling to assemble one only once a challenge lands, by which point the useful contemporaneous records may be hard to reconstruct.

The trademark registration itself does not change — it is always a federal Ministry of Economy right regardless of which free zone or mainland authority issued the owning entity's licence, because free zones do not run their own trademark registries. What the free-zone dimension affects is the surrounding administration: the owning entity's licence status, the Power of Attorney chain, and any legalisation requirements for documents originating in that free zone. DIFC and ADGM in particular have their own common-law legal frameworks that matter for how licence and assignment agreements over the mark are drafted and enforced, even though the trademark registration remains federal. We keep the federal registration and the free-zone-entity administration aligned so neither trips up the other.

UAE trademark law recognises a category of well-known marks that can receive protection extending beyond the specific classes in which they are registered — reflecting the international principle that a genuinely famous mark should not be free-ridden on in adjacent sectors. But well-known status is not automatic or self-declared: it must be established on evidence of the mark's reputation, use, and recognition, and invoking it is more evidence-intensive and less predictable than a straightforward registered-right claim within your filed classes. It is a valuable backstop for established brands, not a substitute for filing in the classes you actually operate in. We would treat well-known-mark arguments as a supplement to solid class coverage, never as a reason to under-file.

Deciding to let a mark go is a portfolio decision worth making deliberately rather than by omission. Simply not renewing lets the mark lapse, which is fine if the brand is truly retired and unused — but you should confirm first that it is not still appearing on legacy products, contracts, or channels where lapsing would leave live use unprotected, and that a lapse does not open a door for a competitor to file the freed-up mark. A formal, documented decision to discontinue (versus an accidental lapse) also keeps the register and the client's records honest for future due diligence. Part of the annual review is flagging marks that look dormant so the client makes an active keep-or-drop call rather than paying to renew dead weight — or losing something still in use by neglect.

PNPC assigns a named relationship contact for the portfolio — the person who maintains the renewal calendar, reviews watch flags, and coordinates class/activity reviews — separately from the licensed UAE trademark agent who executes the formal Ministry of Economy filing steps. The client always has one point of contact for status questions, even though the formal filing itself is channelled through the registered agent as UAE practice requires.

Trademark ownership and a UAE trade licence are legally separate — a registered trademark does not automatically lapse if the licence of the entity that owns it is not renewed, but an expired trade licence can complicate Power of Attorney renewals, bank confirmations, and any new filing that requires current licence evidence. We flag a client's trade licence renewal status as part of the annual portfolio review specifically because it affects our ability to act on the mark, even though it does not affect the mark's registration status directly.

Clients on a portfolio retainer receive one consolidated register covering every mark — registration numbers, classes, renewal dates, watch flags, and recordal status — rather than a series of separate per-mark updates. The combined view is what makes a class-coverage gap or an approaching renewal visible against the whole brand estate, not just against the one mark someone happens to be asking about.

No — portfolio management (renewal tracking, watch monitoring, class review, recordals) and contested litigation are distinct workstreams that we expect to coordinate with, not replace, existing litigation counsel. Where a watch flag or infringement discovery escalates into a genuine dispute, PNPC hands the matter to the client's litigation firm (or one we coordinate with) while continuing to manage the underlying portfolio calendar so the rest of the estate is not neglected while the dispute is live.

Yes — this is precisely what the class-and-activity gap analysis at intake is designed to catch. We map every existing registration's classes against a description of what the business actually sells or does today, not just against what was originally requested when the mark was first filed, which is often years out of date by the time a business reaches out to us. Where gaps are found, we scope a new filing to close them rather than assuming the original filing was necessarily correct.

An opposition is filed against a new application during its publication window, before it registers, on the basis that it conflicts with an earlier mark. A non-use cancellation action is filed against an already-registered mark, arguing it has not been genuinely used for a continuous period and should be removed from the register. Portfolio management's watch service is built to catch opposition opportunities while the window is open; a non-use cancellation action against a third party's mark (or defending one brought against a client's own mark) is a separate, scoped enforcement matter that we handle as it arises rather than as a standing feature of the retainer.