Trademark Glossary

Core terms

Serial Number

The eight-digit number assigned when you file. It identifies your application throughout prosecution and is what you quote in every letter before registration.

Registration Number

The number issued when the mark registers. This is the number you use alongside the ® symbol, in licenses, and in marketplace takedown requests.

Mark Drawing Code

A four-digit code describing what you filed: 4000 for a standard-character word mark, 3000 for a design that includes words, 6000 for a design without words.

International Class

One of 45 categories used to sort goods (classes 1 to 34) and services (classes 35 to 45). Fees are charged per class, and the scope of your rights is set by class.

Identification of Goods and Services

The exact wording describing what you sell. It defines the outer edge of your rights and cannot be broadened after filing, which is why wording it carefully matters more than it looks.

Filing Basis

The legal ground for the application: Section 1(a) use in commerce, 1(b) intent to use, 44 foreign registration, or 66 extension of an international registration into the United States.

Specimen

The evidence that the mark is actually used: a photograph of the product or label, a screenshot of a real ordering page showing the mark and a way to buy, or a services advertisement.

Examining Attorney

The USPTO attorney who reviews your application, checks it against registered marks and issues Office Actions. They represent the office, not you, and cannot give you legal advice.

Non-final Office Action

The first substantive letter raising problems, typically refusals and requirements. You generally have three months to respond, extendable to six months for a fee.

Final Office Action

Issued when your response did not resolve everything. Your options narrow to complying, appealing to the TTAB, or abandoning and refiling.

Notice of Allowance

Issued to a Section 1(b) application after it clears examination and the opposition period. It starts a six-month clock to file a Statement of Use.

Statement of Use

The post-allowance filing that proves you have begun using the mark, with a specimen and a fee of $150 per class. Without it, an intent-to-use application never becomes a registration.

Status, registers and outcomes

Registration Certificate

The document issued when the mark registers. Keep the original: you will need it for customs recordation, brand registries, and as the basis for foreign filings.

Abandonment

The status when an application dies, most often from a missed response deadline or an unfiled Statement of Use. Some abandonments can be revived by petition with a fee, but the window is short.

Principal Register

The main register. Marks here get full protection, nationwide constructive notice, and can become incontestable after five years of continuous use.

Supplemental Register

A fallback for descriptive marks not yet distinctive. It lets you register and use ®, but gives no nationwide constructive notice and no incontestability, and many enforcement tools are weaker.

Disclaimer

A statement that you do not claim exclusive rights in part of the mark, such as a generic or descriptive word inside it. It narrows your rights but often rescues a mark that would otherwise be refused.

Constructive Notice

The legal rule that once your mark is registered, everyone is treated as knowing about it. It removes the innocent-adoption defense a later user would otherwise raise.

Systems and bodies you will run into

TEAS and Trademark Center

TEAS was the old electronic filing system. Trademark Center replaced it for new filings in 2025, and you will still see TEAS form names in older guidance and in some status records.

TSDR

Trademark Status and Document Retrieval, the public site where you look up any serial or registration number and download every document in the file, including Office Actions and your own responses.

XSearch

A structured search field syntax used in USPTO search tools. It lets you combine word and field codes with operators, which is how a professional search narrows thousands of hits to the dozen that matter.

TTAB

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which decides oppositions, cancellation petitions, and appeals of final refusals. It is an administrative tribunal inside the USPTO, not a court, and it cannot award damages.

Status lines you will actually see

• New application awaiting assignment to an examining attorney: nothing has been reviewed yet, typically for eight to ten months.
• Live or pending: the application is alive and moving. This is a good status, not a problem.
• Awaiting response to non-final Office Action: there is a three-month clock running, and it is the one that catches most filers.
• Published for opposition: the mark survived examination and is in the thirty-day window when anyone can oppose it.
• Registered: a registration number has issued. You may begin using ® for the goods and services listed.
• Dead or abandoned: the application is over unless a petition to revive is filed, and the fee is not refundable.

The five-minute status check

Enter your serial number in TSDR and read three things: the current status line, the listed owner and correspondence address, and the prosecution history at the bottom. If the status says something you do not recognize, the document attached in the prosecution history is almost always the fastest explanation. Doing this once a month while an application is pending is enough to catch every problem while it is still cheap to fix.

What is the difference between a serial number and a registration number?

The serial number is assigned at filing and tracks the application. The registration number is assigned only when the mark registers, and it is the one you use with the ® symbol. A pending application has a serial number and no registration number.

My status says abandoned. Can I get it back?

Often yes, if the abandonment was unintentional and you act quickly. Filing a petition to revive requires a statement of unintentional delay and a fee, and there is a strict outer limit of two months after the notice of abandonment for unintentional cases.

What does it mean if my mark is on the Supplemental Register?

The examining attorney found the mark descriptive but capable of becoming distinctive. You get a registration and can use ®, but you lose nationwide constructive notice and incontestability, and it is harder to stop others. Many filers later file a fresh application for the same mark with acquired-distinctiveness evidence.

How do I find the letters the USPTO sent me?

Open TSDR, enter the serial number, and look at the document list in the prosecution history. Every Office Action, response and notice in the file is downloadable as a PDF, including documents mailed before you started watching the file.

Is an Examining Attorney the same as a judge?

No. The examining attorney works for the USPTO and decides whether your application meets the requirements to register. If they issue a final refusal, the TTAB is the body that reviews it, and its decision can be appealed to a federal court.

• Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) | USPTO
• Trademark search (tmsearch) | USPTO
• Trademark basics | USPTO
• Trademark Trial and Appeal Board | USPTO