1002.01 Eligible Applicants Under §44(e)
To be eligible for registration under §44(e), an applicant must meet the following requirements:
- (1) The applicant’s country of origin must be a party to a treaty or agreement with the United States that provides for registration based on ownership of a foreign registration, or must extend reciprocal registration rights to nationals of the United States (15 U.S.C. §1126(b)); and
- (2) The applicant must be the owner of a valid registration in the applicant’s country of origin (15 U.S.C. §1126(c), (e)).
See TMEP §1002.04 regarding the applicant’s country of origin, and TMEP §1002.03 and Appendix B for information about how to determine whether a particular country is a party to a treaty or agreement, or provides reciprocal registration rights to United States nationals.
If an applicant does not meet the requirements listed above, the examining attorney must refuse registration under §44(e). See SARL Corexco v. Webid Consulting Ltd., 110 USPQ2d 1587, 1590-91 (TTAB 2014). The applicant may amend the application to claim §1(a) or §1(b) as a basis. See TMEP §§806.03 et seq. regarding amendment of the basis.
An applicant domiciled in the United States cannot obtain registration under §44(e) unless the applicant is the owner of a registration from an eligible country other than the United States and the applicant can establish that the foreign country is the applicant’s country of origin. See TMEP §1002.05.
See TMEP §§1004 et seq. for additional information about the requirements for registration under §44(e).