Someone making no use of their TM.

[Manic]

I was researching names for a new product and discovered that someone else in the same field registered one of the names I'm interested in a couple of years ago. However, they show no signs of having made any use of it over the last two years.

Is it necessary to develop a product for a TM to keep hold of the TM?

...Or is it possible they could hold onto it indefinately without any development going on at all?

[DaddyHalbucks]

Is it necessary to develop a product for a TM to keep hold of the TM?
++++++++++++++

Yes, trademark rights flow from use.

[jberryhill]

This is one of the main things that drives me up the wall about UDRP Panelists whose decisions suggest that if the word is found in the USPTO database as a registered mark, then the domain name registrant should have known about it.

The fact of the matter is that the owner of a trademark registration may have ceased all use of the mark, and abandoned all rights in the mark. If there was a registration, it will stay on the register for years, but will not reflect any actual right.