Director's Forum: A Blog from USPTO's Leadership

Big Improvements to Our Online TMEP

Guest blog by Commissioner for Trademarks Deborah Cohn

We recently introduced a new, more user-friendly interface for the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP). If you haven’t had the opportunity to use it yet, I’m confident you’ll be pleased with it. The TMEP provides trademark applicants (and their attorneys and representatives) and our trademark examining attorneys with a reference on the practices and procedures for prosecution of applications to register marks with the USPTO.

The new interface offers users a more sophisticated and efficient method of getting needed information quickly. Searching is simplified so it is more similar to searching the Internet. When a search is executed, users receive weighted results which can give added focus. The display can also be modified to suit user needs. Browsing the TMEP is simpler, with a table of contents that can be hidden. In this way, the user can maximize the screen space available to display the content. Another recent, behind-the-scenes enhancement simplifies and shortens the process to publish the TMEP, allowing us to serve you better with more frequent updates.

The first publication using the new system took place on October 31, when we published the October 2012 update of the TMEP. With that update, we now identify the TMEP by the month and year in which it is issued (i.e., October 2012). This is a change from prior versions, which were identified using edition and revision numbers. At a roundtable I attended in Detroit in mid-November, practitioners told me they were very pleased with the new interface. One reported that it was the best IT improvement we have made to date.

We hope you’ll feel the same and we look forward to hearing your feedback on the new interface and TMEP update. Send your thoughts about the new TMEP to us by email at tmtmep@uspto.gov.

Posted at 12:13PM Jan 04, 2013 in trademarks  |  Comments[0]