1301.04(h)(iv)(C) Web Pages
Web pages from an applicant’s or a third-party’s website may be submitted as advertising. This type of specimen is acceptable if it shows the mark used in advertising the identified services and creates the required direct association by referring to the services and by showing the mark being used to identify and distinguish the services and their source. See 37 C.F.R. §2.56(b)(2); In re Florists' Transworld Delivery, Inc., 119 USPQ2d 1056, 1062 (TTAB 2016).
Web pages lacking a reference to the services may be acceptable if they show use of the mark in rendering the services. See 37 C.F.R. §2.56(b)(2); TMEP §1301.04(i), Example 14 (OUTERNAUTS).
Web pages from social-networking websites should be scrutinized to ensure that the mark is properly directly associated with the identified services. Some applicants may mistakenly mischaracterize their services as "social networking" because they assume that advertising or promoting their non-social-networking services via a social-networking website means they are providing social-networking services. For instance, an applicant may mistakenly file an application for "online social-networking services" and provide a Facebook® webpage as a specimen when, in fact, they operate a pet store and are only using the Facebook® website to advertise the pet store and communicate information to and messages with actual and potential customers. Such a specimen is not acceptable for the social-networking services since it does not demonstrate that the applicant is providing these services. See In re Florists' Transworld Delivery, Inc., 119 USPQ2d at 1057 ("[A]n applicant generally will not be able to rely on use of its social media account to support an application for registration of a mark for [the service of creating an online community for users].").
URL and Date Accessed/Printed Required for Web Pages. Due to the transitory nature of Internet postings, the URL for the web page of the specimen and the date the page was accessed or printed must both be provided to enable verification. 37 C.F.R. §2.56(c). Trademark owners can submit the URL and date directly on the specimen webpage itself, appearing anywhere on the page within the TEAS form that submits the specimen, or in a verified statement under 37 C.F.R. §2.20 or 28 U.S.C. §1746 in a later-filed response. This information may not be entered via examiner’s amendment. In rare situations, if the web page includes a photograph of the applied-for mark that directly associates the mark with the identified services (e.g., a picture showing a mark for restaurant services on a restaurant building) and that would otherwise be acceptable as a specimen of use for services, it need not include the URL and access or print date.
Specimens in applications and post-registration filings submitted prior to February 15, 2020 are "grandfathered" under the prior rules, until the application registers or is abandoned and cannot be revived or reinstated pursuant to 37 C.F.R §§2.64, 2.66, or 2.146, or until the acceptance or final rejection of the post-registration filing. Specimens and substitute specimens submitted on or after February 15, 2020, including those submitted in connection with applications and post-registration filings that were filed prior to February 15, 2020, are not grandfathered and must comply with the current specimen rules.