Trademark Status: Withdrawn — Meaning and Next Steps

Short answer: Withdrawn means the trademark application has been taken out of the registration process, normally because the applicant or its authorised agent asked the Trade Marks Registry to withdraw it. The application is closed: it will not be examined further, advertised or registered, and it gives no rights in the mark. To seek registration again, a fresh application is needed, with a new filing date.

Why your application shows this status

In practice this status appears once the Registry has recorded a written withdrawal request from the applicant. Applicants withdraw pending applications for different reasons, for example after an examination objection, to settle or avoid an opposition, or to refile a better-drafted application. Withdrawal is the applicant's own act. That separates it from Abandoned, where the Registry treats the application as abandoned because a step was missed (such as no reply to the examination report under Rule 33(4) or no counter-statement under Section 21(2)), and from Refused, which is a decision of the Registrar.

What happens next

• The application is closed and will not proceed to acceptance, advertisement or registration.
• The applicant loses the filing date the application held, and the application gives no rights in the mark.
• Official fees are not refunded as a matter of course. The Act provides for repayment on withdrawal only in the narrow preliminary-advice case in Section 133(2), with written notice within one month of receiving the examination report (Rule 35).
• Rule 129 allows the Registrar to destroy the records of a withdrawn application one year after withdrawal, so the applicant should keep its own copies.
• If the mark is still wanted, a new application must be filed; it is examined afresh from its own filing date.

What to do now

• Confirm the withdrawal was intended: check the status history and documents on the e-register and with the agent who handled the file.
• If no withdrawal request was ever filed, write to the Trade Marks Registry promptly, quoting the application number, and ask for the record to be checked and corrected.
• If protection is still wanted, run a fresh search, since others may have filed similar marks, and then file a new application.
• Download and keep the application file, the withdrawal request and the Registry's acknowledgement, especially if the withdrawal was part of a settlement with an opponent.
• Remember that the Act gives no infringement action for an unregistered mark (Section 27(1)); a passing-off action is not affected (Section 27(2)), but that is a matter for an advocate.

Common mistakes

• Confusing Withdrawn with Abandoned, Refused or "withdrawal of acceptance" under Section 19, where the Registrar withdraws an acceptance and the application continues.
• Assuming a new application keeps the old filing date or priority. It gets its own date and is examined again.
• Withdrawing to fix a minor error that could have been corrected through a request to amend under Section 22 and Rule 37 (Form TM-M).
• Expecting the filing fee back as a matter of course.

For every other status and what it means, see the trademark status guide.