TTAB Grants Two Cancellation Petitions Based on Registrant's Deemed Admissions of Non-use
In this consolidated cancellation proceeding, the Board granted petitions to cancel two registrations for the mark SUPERKING for bags, bath towels, and various other goods in classes 18 and 24, on the ground of non-use as of the filing dates of the underlying use-based applications. Respondent did not respond to discovery, submit any evidence or testimony, or file a brief. Its attorney told petitioner that his client was not responding to his communications. Super Kings International, Inc. v. Shenzhen BMX Network Technology Ltd., Cancellation Nos. 92085356 and 92085358 (Consolidated) (June 5, 2026) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Christopher C. Larkin).
Petitioner argued that respondent's failure to defend was sufficient to warrant judgment, but the Board disagreed:
The plaintiff always bears the burden of proving that the defendant is not entitled to obtain or maintain a registration “even in the absence of contrary evidence or argument.” DC Comics v. Cellular Nerd LLC, No. 91246950, 2022 WL 17832492, at *9 (TTAB 2022) (citation omitted). Defendants thus are not required to “defend” a case by submitting evidence or a brief, and there are no adverse consequences flowing simply from a defendant’s failure to do either.
The Board observed that “[a]n application based on use of the mark in commerce under Section 1(a) . . . is void ab initio if the mark was not in use in commerce in connection with the goods identified in the application at the time the application was filed.”
Petitioner relied on respondent’s deemed admissions of non-use resulting from its failure to respond to requests for admission served by petitioner under Rule 36 of the Federal Rules of Civil, which provides that "[a] matter is admitted, unless within 30 days after being served, the party to whom the request is directed serves on the requesting party a written answer or objection addressed to the matter and signed by the party or its attorney.” “The effect of such admissions is that the subject matter of the requests is ‘conclusively established" . . . .
Respondent thus admitted that its marks had “never been used in commerce in the United States," that “none of the goods or services listed under Registrant’s Mark[s] have ever been sold, offered for sale, or distributed under Registrant’s Mark[s] in the United States,” and that “the specimens of use submitted in registering Registrant’s Mark[s] were not of products in commerce in the United States at the time of registration or at any time before or after registration, but instead fraudulent fabricated specimens.”
Consquently, the Board found that the two registrations at issue were void ab initio, and so it granted the petitions for cancellation.
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TTABlogger comment: The underlying applications were filed by attorney Nyall Engfield. In March 2025, while these proceedings were pending, Mr. Engfield was publicly reprimanded and put on probation for six months by the USPTO’s Office of Enrollment and Discipline (“OED”) for misconduct in the representation of numerous Chinese applicants before the USPTO. Note also that registrant's attorney in these proceedings, Jonathan G. Morton, was suspended from practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a period of twenty-four months, commencing on April 24, 2022, as stated in a Final Order of suspension (pdf here). Mr. Morton had acknowledged that did not conduct reasonable inquiries regarding the specimens of use that he submitted on behalf of his clients.
Text Copyright John L. Welch 2026.



















