(1) Upon the receipt of an application for registration and payment of the application fee, the department may cause the application to be examined for conformity with this chapter.

(2) The applicant shall provide any additional pertinent information requested by the department, including a description of a design mark, and may make, or authorize the department to make, such amendments to the application as may be reasonably requested by the department or deemed by the applicant to be advisable to respond to any rejection or objection.

(3) The department may require the applicant to disclaim an unregistrable component of a mark otherwise registrable, and an applicant may voluntarily disclaim a component of a mark sought to be registered. No disclaimer shall prejudice or affect the applicant’s or registrant’s rights then existing or thereafter arising in the disclaimed matter, or the applicant’s or registrant’s rights of registration on another application, if the disclaimed matter is or has become distinctive of the applicant’s or registrant’s goods or services.

(4) Amendments may be made by the department upon the application submitted by the applicant upon the applicant’s agreement, or a new application may be required to be submitted. Amendments to an otherwise properly filed application shall not affect the application filing date for purposes of determining the applicant’s or registrant’s filing priority rights.

(5) If the applicant is found not to be entitled to registration, the department shall advise the applicant of the rejection and of the reasons for rejection. The applicant shall have 3 months in which to reply or amend the application, in which event the application shall be reexamined. This procedure may be repeated until:

(a) The department makes final its refusal to register the mark; or

(b) The applicant fails to reply or amend the application within the specified period, whereupon the application shall be abandoned.

For good cause shown, such as the pendency of litigation involving the mark, the department may extend the period of time in which to respond to the rejection or suspend examination of the application.

(6) If the department makes final its refusal to register the mark, the applicant may seek review of such decision in accordance with ss. 120.569 and 120.57.

(7) In the event of multiple applications concurrently being processed by the department which seek registration of the same or confusingly similar marks for the same or related goods or services, the department shall grant priority to the applications in order of receipt. If a prior-received application is granted a registration, the other application or applications shall then be rejected. The applicant of a rejected application may bring an action for cancellation of the registration upon grounds of prior or superior rights to the mark, in accordance with the provisions of s. 495.101(3).

History.—s. 6, ch. 2006-191.