United States Patent and Trademark Office OG Notices: 18 December 2001

           Trademark Applications That Include Two or More Drawings

   An application for registration must be limited to one mark. 37
C.F.R.   2.52(a). Under 37 C.F.R.   2.21(a)(3), an applicant must
submit "a clear drawing of the mark" to receive a filing date.

   Prior to October 30, 1999, an applicant was required to submit
a separate drawing page in order to receive a filing date, and the
drawing page was considered a separate element that was not part of the
written application. In re Tetrafluor Inc., 17 USPQ2d 1160
(Comm'r Pats. 1990). The Office looked only to the drawing page to
determine what the mark was. If one mark appeared on the drawing page
and a different mark appeared in the written application, the drawing
controlled, and the Office would disregard the mark in the written
application.

   Effective October 30, 1999, 37 C.F.R.   2.52 was amended to
eliminate the requirement for a separate drawing page. If an applicant
chooses to submit a separate drawing page, the Office considers this
page to be part of the written application, not a separate element.
Since October 30, 1999, the policy of the Office has been that the
drawing page no longer controls for the purpose of determining what the
mark is. If one mark appears on the drawing page, and another mark (or
a materially different version of the mark) appears in the written
application, the application is denied a filing date.

   Since October 30, 1999, many applicants have been denied filing
dates because they submitted applications in which one mark appeared on
a separate drawing page and a different version of the mark appeared in
the written application. However, in a recent petition decision,
In re L.G. Lavorazioni Grafite SRL, - USPQ2d - (Comm'r Pats.,
October 18, 2001), the Office announced that it will no longer deny
filing dates in these circumstances. Henceforth, if an applicant
submits a separate drawing page showing a mark, and a different mark
appears in the written application, the Office will grant a filing date
to the application. The mark that appears on the drawing page will
control, and the Office will disregard the mark in the written
application. The applicant will not be permitted to amend the mark if
the amendment is a material alteration of the mark on the drawing page.
37 C.F.R.   2.72.

   This policy change is effective as of October 18, 2001, the
date of the aforementioned petition decision. An applicant who was
denied a filing date prior to that date may petition the Director under
37 C.F.R.   2.146 to restore the filing date. Under 37 C.F.R.
  2.146(d), the petition must be filed within two months of the mailing
date of the Notice of Incomplete Trademark Application, or it will be
denied as untimely. This time limit will be strictly enforced.

   The Office will continue to deny filing dates when an applicant
submits two or more drawing pages showing materially different marks or
two or more different marks embedded in a written application that is
not accompanied by a drawing page.

                                                            ANNE H. CHASSER
                                                Commissioner for Trademarks