Do withdrawn or abandoned applications count against the success rate?

No. They are counted as successes, because the only outcome defined as a failure is a final refusal by the USPTO or CIPO — and a withdrawn application never received one.

How many of Trademark Factory's applications actually ended in a final refusal?

As of July 29, 2026, unfortunately, there are 33 final refusals that meet those criteria, out of the 5,125 trademarks filed with the USPTO and CIPO. That is the entire failure column, and it is where the 99.3% comes from: 5,125 minus 33, divided by 5,125.

Why is the denominator every application, rather than only the guaranteed ones?

Because a smaller denominator would flatter the number. Every application Trademark Factory has filed goes in, unfiltered. The two conditions in Definition 2 are applied only to the refusals counted as failures: the marks backed by the Approval Guarantee where the client instructed Trademark Factory to respond to office actions.

What is the Approval Guarantee, and what does it have to do with the number?

The Approval Guarantee is Trademark Factory's 100% money-back promise: if a qualifying trademark it files is ultimately refused, it refunds its professional fees. It appears in the methodology because it identifies the applications Trademark Factory stands behind financially. It is offered to qualifying clients whether or not they buy it, so nothing turns on who paid for the guarantee.

The arithmetic gives 99.36%. Why is 99.3% published?

Because the figure is rounded down. 5,125 minus 33, divided by 5,125, is 99.36%, and conventional rounding would allow a higher published figure than 99.3%. Rounding down keeps the published number one the underlying data can always clear.

Is the figure audited or verified by a third party?

No. It is computed from internal records of filings and office outcomes at the USPTO and CIPO. Filing histories at both offices are public, which is why the definitions behind the figure are published: the claim can be read against the rules that produced it.

How often is the figure recalculated?

Periodically, as the caseload grows. The last updated date shown on the methodology page reflects when the figure and the methodology were last reviewed, and it is changed only when the numbers are actually recalculated.

Does a 99.3% success rate mean my trademark will be approved?

No. It describes what happened across 5,125 past applications, not what will happen to any particular mark. Registrability depends on the specific mark, its goods and services, and what is already on the register.

Home / About Us / Success Rate Methodology

Methodology & Transparency

How We Calculate Our 99.3% Trademark Success Rate

A number is only as trustworthy as the method behind it. This page sets out, in plain English, exactly how Trademark Factory® arrives at its 99.3% success rate: which applications are counted, what we treat as a failure, how withdrawn applications are handled, and the period, countries, and sample size the figure is based on. The short version: 33 of the 5,125 trademarks we have filed ended in a final refusal we count against ourselves.

Full definitions published

USPTO & CIPO outcomes

No cherry-picked cohort

See how the number is calculated Check my trademark

The figure comes from our own filing records. We publish the definitions behind it so the number can be read against them.

Scope of the figure

What the 99.3% covers

Reporting period: lifetime — every year we have filed, since 2013.
Countries: United States and Canada only (USPTO and CIPO filings).
Sample size: 5,125 filed applications — every one we have filed, not a subset.
Final refusals: 33 of them. That is the whole of the failure column.
Last updated: July 29, 2026.

These facts are the full scope of the claim. Applications filed with trademark offices outside the USA and Canada are not part of this calculation.

Outcome	How it is counted	Why
Trademark registered	Success	No final refusal was issued.
Office action overcome or amended around	Success	An office action is not a final refusal. Only an unreversed final refusal is.
Application withdrawn or abandoned by the client	Success	The trademark office never refused it — the applicant chose to stop. See the section below.
Final refusal on an application meeting both conditions in Definition 2	Failure	The only outcome counted against the success rate. 33 of our 5,125 filings ended here.
Final refusal where we did not offer the Approval Guarantee, or were not instructed to respond to office actions	Success	We either did not stand behind the mark financially, or were never given the chance to defend it. Stating this plainly matters more to us than a tidier table.
Search, consultation, or quote with no filing	Not counted at all	Never reached a trademark office, so it is outside the sample entirely.
Application filed outside the USA or Canada	Not counted at all	This figure covers USPTO and CIPO filings only.

Outcome

How it is counted

Why

Trademark registered

Success

No final refusal was issued.

Office action overcome or amended around

Success

An office action is not a final refusal. Only an unreversed final refusal is.

Application withdrawn or abandoned by the client

Success

The trademark office never refused it — the applicant chose to stop. See the section below.

Final refusal on an application meeting both conditions in Definition 2

Failure

The only outcome counted against the success rate. 33 of our 5,125 filings ended here.

Final refusal where we did not offer the Approval Guarantee, or were not instructed to respond to office actions

Success

We either did not stand behind the mark financially, or were never given the chance to defend it. Stating this plainly matters more to us than a tidier table.

Search, consultation, or quote with no filing

Not counted at all

Never reached a trademark office, so it is outside the sample entirely.

Application filed outside the USA or Canada

Not counted at all

This figure covers USPTO and CIPO filings only.

Why an application the client walks away from is not counted as a refusal

This is the part of any success-rate claim worth reading closely, so we will state it directly: withdrawn, abandoned, and voluntarily discontinued applications are counted as successes in our figure, not as failures.

That follows from the definition rather than working around it. A failure, in our methodology, is one specific event: a final refusal issued by the USPTO or CIPO. An application that the client withdraws or stops pursuing never receives that refusal. The trademark office did not reject the mark — the applicant decided to stop, and the file went quiet.

In practice, those decisions are almost always commercial rather than legal. The brand pivots. The product gets shelved. The company is sold, or the founder decides to refile with a different mark or a narrower list of goods and services. Counting those files as refusals would say something about our clients' business plans, not about how our applications fare in front of the trademark offices — which is what this figure is meant to measure.

The same reasoning covers a related case. If a client tells us to stop responding to office actions and the file is refused after that, the refusal is not counted either — the second condition in Definition 2 was not met, because we were not instructed to defend it through to an outcome. That is the same situation as a withdrawal, just arriving by a different route, and it is set out in the table above rather than left implied.

The trade-off is worth naming: because withdrawals sit on the success side of the line, our number measures the rate at which the USPTO and CIPO issued final refusals against the applications we backed and were told to defend. It is not a measure of how many of our clients ended up holding a registration certificate. Those are different questions, and this page answers the first one.

How We Calculate Our 99.3% Trademark Success Rate

What the 99.3% covers

What we count as a filed application, and what we count as a failure

A “filed application”

A “failure”

Withdrawn & Abandoned Applications

Why an application the client walks away from is not counted as a refusal

How the number is produced, step by step

Count every application we have filed

Count the final refusals that meet both conditions

Divide one by the other

What this figure does — and does not — tell you

What it does tell you

What it does not tell you

Success Rate FAQ

Now Find Out Where Your Own Trademark Stands