Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

News & notices

USPTO notices regarding COVID-19 and CARES Act extensions of deadlines

TTAB offers relief for applications related to COVID-19: TTAB is providing relief for applications that were examined under the COVID-19 Prioritized Trademark Examination Program and are now on appeal or in an opposition. For appeals, TTAB will expedite the review of, and the issuance of ex parte appeal decisions under certain circumstances. For oppositions, a TTAB attorney or judge may participate in the parties' mandatory settlement and discovery planning conference. The applications are monitored once they are at TTAB and there are no requirements for applicants to meet to be involved in the relief offered. For additional information, see the USPTO notice of the relief offered.
USPTO notices regarding COVID-19: All USPTO notices are available.
Extension of Deadlines under the CARES Act: Trademarks and TTAB FAQs.
In person interviews, hearings and meetings unavailable: TTAB oral hearings to take place at USPTO offices on or after Friday, March 13, 2020 will be conducted remotely by video or telephone. Parties will receive further instructions on how to participate by video or telephone in advance of the interview, hearing, or meeting. If you have questions, please contact TTABHearings@uspto.gov or call 571-272-8500. Information about trademark examining attorney interviews, patent examiner interviews and PTAB oral hearings is available.

TTAB decision nomination form

Decision nomination form: Use TTAB's new form to nominate an issued decision of the Board for designation as precedential. Nominations can be anonymous.

Submit or update your bar membership information

Requirement for U.S.-licensed attorney: Change in federal trademark regulations requires foreign-domiciled trademark applicants, registrants, and parties to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board proceedings to hire a U.S.-licensed attorney to represent them at the USPTO. For more information, visit our page on the USPTO website.

As of July 2, 2020, when parties are foreign-domiciled, ESTTA defaults to the attorney correspondence screen which requires U.S.-licensed attorneys to submit bar membership information in the following forms: notice of opposition, petition to cancel, notice of appeal, request for extension of time to oppose or Change of Address. When representing U.S.-domiciled parties, you must check the "Party is represented by an attorney" checkbox on the applicable ESTTA screen. Bar information is masked from TTABVUE.

Other TTAB news

TBMP update: The June 2021 update of the TTAB's Manual of Procedure (TBMP) is now available in e-version and pdf.
Trademark and TTAB fees: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) set and adjusted Trademark and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) fees for the first time in nearly three years through its Final Rule, effective January 2, 2021.
Expedited cancellation pilot program concluded: Between March 2018 and February 2020, the TTAB undertook a pilot program to explore with parties involved in certain cancellation cases involving only nonuse and/or abandonment claims possible methods for expediting the cases. The pilot program was developed after careful consideration of public comments on proposals for a streamlined cancellation proceeding. Visit our web page for more information about the expedited cancellation program, including background, goals, how it worked, and information developed over the course of the program.

Policies and procedures

TTAB Manual of Procedure (TBMP) [e-version] (Current)
TTAB Manual of Procedure (TBMP) [PDF] (Current)
Selection of precedential decisions
Ethics guidance
Fees and payment information
TTAB phone conferencing
Comment on the TTAB policy
FAQs

Online systems

Alternate resolution options

Accelerated Case Resolution (ACR)
- Make a suggestion: ACRsuggestions@uspto.gov
ACR Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

Stakeholder outreach

Public comments on streamlined version of trademark cancellation proceedings. For more information, see the full notice in the Federal Register, 82 Fed. Reg. 22517. The comment period closed on August 14, 2017.

Standard documents and guidelines

See ESTTA homepage for online forms and suggested format for Oppositions and Cancellations
Standard Protective Order - Effective February 5, 2020
Acknowledgement of Protective Agreement

Board receipts and issued decisions

View TTAB's Dashboard for pendency measures and inventory of contested motions and final decisions
View TTAB's new filing statistics and performance measures
Search TTAB's Reading Room for final decisions and precedential orders
Selection of precedential decisions
Nominate a decision for precedential designation

Rules/laws

Hearing information

About the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

The TTAB is an administrative board that hears and decides adversary proceedings between two parties, namely, oppositions (party opposes a mark after publication in the Official Gazette ) and cancellations (party seeks to cancel an existing registration). The TTAB also handles interference and concurrent use proceedings, as well as appeals of final refusals issued by USPTO Trademark Examining Attorneys within the course of the prosecution of trademark applications.

The Chief Administrative Trademark Judge is Gerard F. Rogers. The TTAB Video, No. 13, provides an overview of proceedings before the TTAB.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Manual of Procedure

The TBMP provides practitioners with basic information generally useful for litigating cases before the TTAB. The manual does not modify, amend, or serve as a substitute for any existing statutes, rules, or decisional law and is not binding upon the TTAB, its reviewing courts, the Director of the USPTO, or any part of the USPTO. Rather, the TBMP merely describes current practice and procedure under the applicable authority, as of the manual's issue date.

The most recent version of the TBMP may be accessed from the TTAB webpage under Policies, Procedures and FAQs. Earlier editions of the TBMP are posted under TTAB Manual of Procedure (TBMP) archives in the Archives section of this page.

Electronic System for Trademark Trial and Appeals (ESTTA)

Use ESTTA to institute new TTAB proceedings and file documents in existing TTAB proceedings online. Filing online using ESTTA is mandatory for TTAB proceedings. SYSTEM AVAILABILITY: Check current system status and planned outages before beginning the filing process. Because unexpected problems can occur, you should keep filing deadlines in mind and allow plenty of time to resolve any issue which might arise. The Board will provide general assistance to ESTTA filers (see contact information below), but we cannot guarantee that any problem will be resolved prior to a deadline. Submissions filed in paper form are permitted only when ESTTA is unavailable due to technical problems, or when extraordinary circumstances are present. Users should not anticipate that the Board will extend a deadline because it was not possible to submit a filing by ESTTA on the due date.

A paper-filed request for extension of time to file an opposition, a notice of opposition, a petition to cancel, or answer requires a petition to the Director and the requisite petition fee, while other paper-filed submissions require only an explanation of the technical difficulties or extraordinary circumstances.

Requests for time extensions to oppose Madrid Protocol-based applications or oppositions thereto cannot be filed in paper form under any circumstances.

View ESTTA technical requirements and pre-filing information and get help on choosing your ESTTA form.

Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Inquiry System (TTABVUE)

Use TTABVUE to view a TTAB proceeding file by entering the proceeding number, or search for proceedings by application number, registration number, mark, party, correspondent.

Attachments submitted by the public may not be accessible to individuals using assistive technology. If you cannot access any content due to a disability or have any questions, please contact the TTAB Assistance Center by email at TTABInfo@uspto.gov or phone at 571-272-8500, Mon-Fri between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET for assistance. TTAB will make every attempt to make the content accessible and ensure the quality and formatting is the same as the original version. However, TTAB cannot guarantee that the attachments will be accessible or that there will not be any discrepancies after making the content accessible. Please visit USPTO’s Accessibility web page for more information.

Contact Information

Phone: 571-272-8500, Hours of Operation: Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET
Email: TTABInfo@uspto.gov (General Information about TTAB proceedings)
Email: ESTTA@uspto.gov (Technical assistance with ESTTA filings)

Official Mailing Address:
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
P.O. Box 1451
Alexandria, VA 22313-1451

For delivery via FedEx, UPS, etc.:
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Madison East, Concourse Level Room C 55
600 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314