Library Guides: Patents & Trademarks: Searching for Trademarks

How to TESS for basic Trademark word searching

1. Go to TESS

2. Select Basic Word Mark Search

3. Type the word you wish to search

4. Choose if you wish to search plural forms of the word

5. Choose if you wish to search live and dead marks, or just one or the other

6. Use Combined Word Mark field

7. Click Submit Query

Additional TESS Tips
USPTO Tipos for using TESS

Tools for Searching for U.S. Trademarks

TESS
The Trademark Electronic Search System is a USPTO database for the public to search active and inactive federal trademark applications and registrations, both word and design marks.
ID Manual
The U.S. Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual is where you can find a code associated with your good or service, which you can use to do a search using TESS.
Design Search Code Manual
Where you can find an image category code, which you can use to find design marks using TESS.
Conducting a Trademark Search
Outlines a search procedure for searching trademarks (developed by Patent and Trademark Resource Center staff).

How to get started design searching

1. Go to the ID Manual

Find your good or service and make note of the appropriate code for later use.

2. Go to the Design Search Code Manual

Find the image category that most closely matches the image you wish to trademark. You can do this by using the Keyword Search or by browsing by category. Make note of the appropriate code for later use.

THEN

3. Go to TESS

Select Word and/or Design Mark Search
- Structured if searching one or two terms/using no more than two search fields
- Free Form if searching more than two terms/using more than two search fields or if you choose to use Boolean login
Using the International Class field code, type the code you found earlier in the ID Manual
Using the Design Code field code, type the code you found earlier in the Design Search Code Manual
There are numerous other field codes one can use to limit the search even more such as whether it is live or dead, who owns the mark, or searching a word if there may be a word with the image.