USPTO APIUnited States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal agency responsible for examining and registering trademarks in the United States. Operating under the U.S. Department of Commerce, it maintains the largest single-country trademark database in the world with over 10 million records dating back to 1870.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal agency responsible for examining and registering trademarks in the United States. Operating under the U.S. Department of Commerce, it maintains the largest single-country trademark database in the world with over 10 million records dating back to 1870.
The USPTO receives approximately 680,000 trademark applications annually, making it one of the busiest IP offices globally. Unlike most trademark offices worldwide, the USPTO requires applicants to demonstrate actual use of their mark in interstate commerce — a fundamental distinction that affects filing strategy, examination timelines, and maintenance obligations.
All USPTO trademark data is publicly available through bulk XML downloads (ST96 format) via the Open Data Portal. Signa ingests new data within one minute of publication, normalizing 67 source fields into a unified schema that includes the full prosecution history, owner entity resolution, attorney records, and computed maintenance deadlines.
Unique Features
- Use-in-commerce requirement — marks must be used in interstate commerce to register (unlike most other offices)
- Intent-to-Use (ITU) applications — file before actual use with 3-year window to submit proof
- Section 8 & 15 maintenance — unique 5-6 year declaration of use requirement (most offices only require 10-year renewals)
- Supplemental Register — secondary register for descriptive marks that lack distinctiveness
- TTAB proceedings — Trademark Trial and Appeal Board handles oppositions, cancellations, and appeals
- Acquired distinctiveness (Section 2(f)) — marks can become registrable through extensive use
- 210+ unique status codes mapped to Signa's 18-value canonical model
- Oldest continuous trademark records — filings from 1870+ in the database
USPTOData in Signa's API
94% field completeness| Field | Availability | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Word mark / Mark text | Full | 93% of records have mark identification text |
| Mark type (word / design / combined) | Full | Derived from mark drawing code (100% populated) |
| Legal category (trademark / service / collective / certification) | Full | Derived from filing header boolean flags |
| Serial number | Full | 8-digit zero-padded, 100% populated |
| Registration number | Partial | 42% of records (registered marks only) |
| International registration number | Partial | ~20% of records (Madrid designations) |
| Status (18-value canonical model) | Full | Mapped from 210+ USPTO status codes |
| Original USPTO status code | Full | Preserved alongside canonical status |
| Filing date | Full | — |
| Registration date | Partial | 42% of records (registered marks only) |
| Publication for opposition date | Partial | 35% of records |
| Renewal due date | Partial | 16% of records |
| Expiry date | Full | Computed from registration date + renewal rules |
| Owner name and address | Full | Entity type, country (100%), city (95%), state (70%), postcode (45%) |
| Owner entity type (corporation / individual / LLC etc.) | Full | Mapped from USPTO legal-entity-type-code |
| Attorney of record | Partial | 72% of records |
| Correspondent / representative address | Partial | 85% of records |
| Nice classification (1-45) | Full | 99% of records, with per-class status |
| Goods and services descriptions | Full | English text per class |
| Filing basis (use / intent-to-use / 44d / 44e / 66a) | Full | Per-class basis with use-in-commerce dates |
| First use in commerce date | Partial | 28% of records (use-based filings only) |
| US design search codes | Partial | Mostly post-2005 filings |
| Disclaimers, color claims, descriptions | Full | 95% of records have at least one statement |
| Prosecution history (full event timeline) | Full | Every event with code, date, and description |
| Opposition and cancellation proceedings | Full | TTAB proceedings with parties and outcomes |
| Trademark images / logos | Full | Mark images with perceptual hashing for similarity search |
| Paris Convention priority claims | Full | — |
| Official Gazette publications | Full | — |
| Translations, transliterations, phonetic forms | Full | — |
| Madrid designations, divisionals, seniority | Full | — |
| Computed maintenance deadlines (Section 8, 9, 15, 71) | Full | Auto-computed with filing windows and grace periods |
What you get from USPTO
A real Signa API response for a USPTO trademark. This is exactly what your code receives.
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Search USPTO trademarks
The USPTO's own tools have significant limitations: TESS (trademark search) was retired in 2023, the replacement search system has no public API, and the TSDR API only supports lookup by serial number — not full-text search. Rate limits are strict at 60 requests per minute.
Signa provides what the USPTO does not: full-text search with fuzzy, phonetic, and image similarity matching across all 10M+ records, normalized data with entity resolution (deduplicated owners and attorneys across offices), computed maintenance deadlines, and the ability to search USPTO alongside 200+ other offices in a single API call.
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Transparency & Freshness
Data Quality & Freshness
Known Limitations
- Design search codes available for filings after 2005 only
- Correspondent address data ~85% populated
- Owner postcode data ~45% populated
USPTO Trademark Filing Guide
Last verified: 2026-03-01
Always verify with the official office before filing.
USPTO Trademark Filing Fees (2026)
| Filing Type | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| TEAS Plus application | $250 per class | Must use pre-approved goods/services descriptions from ID Manual |
| TEAS Standard application | $350 per class | Custom goods/services descriptions allowed |
| Section 8 Declaration (Year 5-6) | $225 per class | Declaration of continued use, required to maintain registration |
| Section 15 Declaration (Year 5-6) | $200 per class | Optional — claims incontestable status |
| Section 8 & 9 Renewal (Every 10 years) | $525 per class | Combined declaration of use + renewal application |
| Section 8 & 9 late renewal (grace period) | $625 per class | 6-month grace period with $100 surcharge per class |
| Notice of Opposition filing | $600 per class | Filed with TTAB within 30-day opposition window |
| Petition to Cancel | $600 per class | Filed with TTAB against registered marks |
| Letter of Protest | $50 | Third-party submission to examiner during prosecution |
| Request for Extension of Time to Oppose | $0 | First 30-day extension is free; subsequent extensions $0-$200 |
USPTO Trademark Examination Timeline
| Stage | Duration |
|---|---|
| Filing to assignment to examiner | 1-2 months |
| Initial examination review | 3-4 months from filing |
| Office action response deadline | 3 months (from office action date) |
| Publication in Official Gazette | 1-2 months after approval |
| Opposition period | 30 days from publication |
| Registration (if no opposition) | 1-2 months after opposition period closes |
| Total: filing to registration (no issues) | 8-12 months |
| Total: filing to registration (with office action) | 12-18 months |
| Intent-to-Use: additional time for Statement of Use | +6-36 months |
USPTO Data & API
Filing & Procedures
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