TRADEMARK TIPS: SEARCHING IN TESS (USPTO)
TRADEMARK BASICS TO REMEMBER:
- Not every trademark is registrable
- Filing fees are not refundable.
- Key strategy: avoid likelihood of confusion
Trademark: Indicates the source of goods
Service Mark: Indicates the source of service
Likelihood of confusion
- Confusion as to source Exam:
- LUPO for “pants”
- WOLF for “shirts”
Suggestions for searching
On your own:
- USPTO database
- TESS
- gov/SearchTrademarks
- The internet
SEARCHING IN TESS
TYPE OF TRADEMARKS
Word mark
Design mark
SEARCHING IN TESS: Work mark Searching
Dead on search
- “Organic”
Add truncation
- -*organic*
TRUNCATION OPERATORS
$ Matches zero or more continuous characters
? Matches a single character
*Matches zero or more continuous characters in the BI, TI search fields external truncation only
Word mark searching
Dead on search
- “Organic”
Add truncation
- -*organic*
Add pattern matching
- *rg{v0:2}{“n”1:2}{v0:2}{“ckqx”}*
Pattern matching
{a} Alphabet characters A-Z
{c} Consonants
{v} Vowels
{d} Digits 0-9
{e} Even digits
{o} Odd digits
{v0:2} Searches 0-2 vowels
{“e”0:2} Searches 0-2 instances of “e”
{“ckqx”} Searches all letters inside the “_”
PATTERN MATCHING EXAMPLE
- FLEX: “flex”
- Search wont return: phlex, flecks, fleqs, fflexx, or phlehccz
- FLEX: *{“fv”}le{“h”0:1}{“ckqx”}*
SEARCHING IN TESS: Design mark searching
- USPTO assigns each design mark one or more six digit design codes
- Each design code represents a type of figurative element
- Codes allow you to search broadly and narrowly
- Broad: first two digits: 03????[dc]- Animals
- Medium: First four digits: 0305??[dc]- Horses, donkeys, zebras
- Narrow: all six digits: 030503[dc]- Zebras
DESIGN SEARCH CODE MANUAL
DESIGN MARK EXAMPLE
Design mark searching
- Broad: individual elements alone_ 010103, 030503, organic
- Medium: Several elements combined_010103 or 030503 and organic
- Narrow: all elements combined: 010103 and 030503 and organic
SUMMARY OF SEARCH PRINCIPLES
- Begin with dead on search
- Add truncation and pattern matching
- Search:
- Words/designs alone and together
- Words that have similar meanings
- Pictorial equivalents
- Acronyms and what they stand for
USPTO restrictions
- The USPTO doesn’t provide legal advice
- This program is for informational purposes only
- It only covers the mechanics of searching the federal register
- It doesn’t cover full clearance searching
- It doesn’t cover everything you need to know about federal and common law trademark rights