Category: Trademark Protection

The applicant’s address and e-mail address must be provided in the initial application. This is a minimum filing requirement. We will issue official letters and notices to you about your application by e-mail. We are not responsible if you do not receive USPTO correspondence because of your security, anti-spam software, or any problems within your e-mail system. You can always view all USPTO correspondence related to your application online using the Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) system.

Changes of Address
You must keep your mailing and e-mail addresses up to date with us. Make any changes of address to your application using the TEAS Change of Address or Representation form.

No. However, if you don’t have a domicile in the United States, you are required to have a U.S.- licensed attorney represent you in all trademark matters at the USPTO. See the “Hiring an attorney” section on page 10 for more information.

The application must state the trademark owner’s legal name and whether the owner is an individual, sole proprietor, corporation, partnership, LLC, or other entity type. The owner of the trademark is the person or entity that controls the nature and quality of the goods/services provided under the trademark. The owner is not necessarily the name of the person filling out the application.

The “owner” listed below refers to the trademark owner.

• Owner (“applicant”) name and entity type
• Owner address
• Owner e-mail address
• Attorney name and postal and e-mail addresses, if applicant has an attorney
• Depiction of trademark (“the drawing”)
• Goods and/or services
• Application filing fee for one class of goods/services

When a submitted TEAS application reaches our server, we assign it a filing date and time using Eastern Time. The filing date is important because it generally gives your application priority in examination over applications with a later filing date. So, if an application filed after yours has a trademark that is likely to cause confusion with your trademark, that application will be put “on hold,” which we call “suspended,” and prevented from moving forward until yours either registers or goes abandoned.

Qualifying for a filing date for your application does not mean your trademark will be registered. You must comply with all application requirements and overcome any refusals that we issue during examination. Your application must also successfully overcome any challenges filed by third parties in any opposition proceedings.

In most situations, no. Only in very rare situations will filing by other means be permitted, such as on petition in extraordinary circumstances. To find out if you qualify for filing other than by using TEAS, see “Filing documents during an outage

TEAS Plus
This filing option has the lowest filing fee of $225 per class of goods or services, and requires more detailed information at filing. For example, you must include the following information in your application, among other things:

• Your goods and services chosen from the USPTO’s Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual (ID Manual)
• At least one complete filing basis
• Other mark-related information (e.g., a description of the mark and an English translation of any foreign wording in the mark).
• If your application does not meet all of the TEAS Plus filing requirements, you will be required to pay a $125 per class processing fee. From then on, your application will be handled as a TEAS Standard filing option.

TEAS Standard
This filing option has a filing fee of $275 per class of goods or services, and has fewer initial requirements than TEAS Plus. For example, you may write your own descriptions of your goods and services, instead of only using ID Manual entries.

To find out more information about TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard filing options, see Trademark Initial Application Forms

Our TEAS initial trademark application has two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The fees and requirements differ depending on the filing option. You select a filing option based on which requirements you meet.

As of February 15, 2020, you must file your trademark application and all related documents online using the Trademark Electronic Appliation System (TEAS). Electronic filing using TEAS is mandatory for all filers, except in rare circumstances.

TEAS is generally available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can receive a filing date for a particular date until midnight Eastern Time on that date.

Find out the current status of TEAS online and about when planned TEAS maintenance outages will occur in the “USPTO Systems Status and Availability” page. Read about what to do if you need to file a document with us during an unplanned TEAS outage in “Filing documents during an outage

The USPTO does not:

• Decide whether you have the right to use a mark (which differs from the right to register). No law requires that you federally register your mark in order to acquire rights in the mark;
• Enforce your rights in the mark or bring legal action against a potential infringer;
• Conduct trademark searches for the public;
• Comment on the validity of registered marks;
• Assist you with policing your mark against infringers;
• Assist you with recordation of your mark with U.S. Customs and Border Protection;
• Answer questions prior to filing on whether a particular mark or type of mark is eligible for trademark registration; or
• Offer legal advice or opinions about common law trademark rights, state registrations, or trademark infringement claims.