703.01(c) Time for Taking Trial Testimony
37 C.F.R. § 2.121 Assignment of times for taking testimony and presenting evidence. (a) The Trademark Trial and appeal Board will issue a trial order … assigning to each party its time for taking testimony and presenting evidence ("testimony period"). No testimony shall be taken or evidence presented except during the times assigned, unless by stipulation of the parties approved by the Board, or upon motion granted by the Board, or upon order of the Board. …
A party may take trial testimony only during its assigned testimony period, except by stipulation of the parties approved by the Board, or, on motion, by order of the Board. [ Note 1.] See TBMP § 701.
For information concerning the assignment of testimony periods, and the rescheduling, extension, and reopening thereof, see TBMP § 509 and TBMP § 701.
NOTES:
1. See 37 C.F.R. § 2.121(a); Spotify AB v. U.S. Software Inc., 2022 USPQ2d 37, at *5 (TTAB 2022) (objection sustained to testimony declaration executed more than one year prior to trial); Wirecard AG v. Striatum Ventures B.V., 2020 USPQ2d 10086, at *2 n.3 (TTAB 2020) (parties stipulated that any declaration or affidavit shall be admissible even though executed before and not during the testimony period of a party); Robinson v. Hot Grabba Leaf, LLC, 2019 USPQ2d 149089, at *3-4 (TTAB 2019) (absent stipulation or Board order, "a testimony affidavit or declaration must be taken--that is, executed--during the assigned testimony period, as required by Rule 2.121(a)"), cancellation order vacated on default judgment, No. 0:19-cv-61614-DPG (S.D. Fla. Dec. 17, 2019). See also Fossil Inc. v. Fossil Group, 49 USPQ2d 1451, 1454 n.1 (TTAB 1998) (parties stipulated that testimony deposition of applicant’s witness could be taken prior to its testimony period on the same day as opposer’s witness to achieve efficiencies in time and cost). Cf. International Dairy Foods Association v. Interprofession du Gruyère, 2020 USPQ2d 10892, at *3 n.12 (TTAB 2020) (declarations signed prior to testimony period and submitted by opposers as trial testimony considered to have been properly submitted because applicants did not object to them as untimely, and, in fact, treated them as part of the record by raising substantive objections against them), aff’d, ___ F. Supp. 3d ___, 2021 WL 6286234 (E.D. Va. Dec. 15, 2021), appeal docketed, No. 22-1041 (4th Cir. Jan. 11, 2022); Of Counsel Inc. v. Strictly of Counsel Chartered, 21 USPQ2d 1555, 1556 n.2 (TTAB 1991) (where opposer’s testimony deposition was taken two days prior to the opening of opposer’s testimony period, and applicant first raised a timeliness objection in its brief on the case, objection held waived, since the premature taking of the deposition could have been corrected on seasonable objection).