The following is a podcast transcript; you can listen to the Tricks of the Trade(mark) episode here.
The world of trademarks is full of acronyms and when I prepared for this and wrote down a list, I really couldn’t believe how many trademark world acronyms there are in dealing with the USPTO and protecting clients’ trademarks. I’m not going to have time to explain what each one is or what it means or what it does. I think it’s important to go through this just so listeners understand how complicated the world of trademarks is, how complicated filing with the Patent and Trademark Office and knowing all of the proper rules and procedures are. So, here are some of the USPTO’s most significant trademark acronyms
- TMEP. That’s the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure, which contains a wealth of valuable information.
- TEAS, that’s the online filing system.
- OG doesn’t stand for original gangster here. It stands for the Official Gazette, which is where trademarks are published on a weekly basis.
- TTABVUE is for finding and viewing documents in TTAB proceedings.
- TESS is very important. I use TESS many, many times every single day. It’s the Trademark Electronic Search System.
- TSDR is an invaluable tool that replaced TARR, another acronym, to provide details and status for every record at the US Patent and Trademark Office, every trademark record.
- ESSTA, that’s the TTAB’s online filing system.
- TRAM is a tool used by examiners at the USPTO to keep track of where the files are in the system.
- TPAC is the Trademark Public Advisory Committee that meets quarterly here in Alexandria, Virginia at the US Patent and Trademark Office headquarters to discuss ongoing issues, developments related to the trademark operations of the USPTO. I try to attend those meetings in person as often as I can.
- TBMP is the manual procedure for the TTAB.
So, as you can see, that’s I think more than a dozen acronyms that I came up with in just a few moments of reflecting on things that I’ve interacted with in the last 48 hours in the world of trademarks. And we didn’t even touch international filing and the acronyms that go with those like IPO, ROMARIN, and a variety of other things. OEM, I could go on, but I won’t.
I recommend that any one filing a trademark application make sure they work with someone who understands not just what these acronyms mean, but how to use them and why they’re important.
