USPTO Trademark Search Tool Tips

Have You Tried the New USPTO Trademark Search Tool?

It has now been several months since the USPTO finalized the switchover to the new trademark system. If you are like most of us, you are probably not overly impressed with the system. It is not intuitive; it is harder to get basic information and requires more training to use with any degree of accuracy. Here are a couple of tips that may help you:

• Always use “expert mode” (it has more features) 
• If you want to use “field tags,” here are some useful hints:

• The most common field tags are:
  

CM (mark)
ON (owner)
SN (application number)
RN (registration number)
GS (goods and services)
IC (international class)

• The tag must be in ALL caps (i.e., CM: APPLE)
• If you want to search for a term that includes more than one term use quotes (i.e., CM: “COCA COLA”)
  

• There is an FAQ at: https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/help (also note the “advanced” tab that has more specific search guidance)