1612.01    Correspondence Email and Domicile Address of Registrant

The requirement for an owner’s email and domicile addresses is generally required in all post-registration submissions. 37 C.F.R §§2.18(c), 2.23(b), 2.189, 7.25(a); see In re Chestek PLLC, 92 F.4th 1105, 1113, 2024 USPQ2d 297, at *8 (Fed. Cir. 2024) (domicile address requirement affirmed). See TMEP §1612.01(a) regarding an owner’s email address and §1612.01(b) regarding an owner’s domicile address.

1612.01(a)    Correspondence Email Address

Registrants must provide and keep current a valid email address for correspondence. 37 C.F.R. §§2.18(c), 2.23(b), 7.25(a); TMEP §609.01. The registrant’s email address is required even if the registrant has appointed a qualified U.S. attorney, so that the USPTO can contact the registrant if representation ends.

Trademark registrants who are represented by an appointed qualified U.S. attorney may provide an email address of their choice in the owner email field of the TEAS forms. The email address cannot be identical to the listed primary correspondence email address of their attorney. The email address listed in the owner field for trademark applicants while represented by a qualified U.S. attorney will not be publicly viewable. The USPTO makes an effort to mask this field only as a courtesy to make it harder for the data to be scraped for solicitation or other purposes, not because the data is private. Owners should be aware that their email addresses may be made public at any time if and when their counsel is removed from a case for any reason, and are highly encouraged to use email addresses that they use only for USPTO trademark correspondence. All electronic filers are on notice that they have no expectation of privacy in the email addresses they use in trademark filings. The correspondence email address of the attorney will be visible.

Trademark registrants who are not represented by such an attorney will have a correspondence email address that is identical to the owner address. In either situation, the email address can be a unique email address created specifically for this purpose. The email address of a registrant will be visible in TSDR in the correspondence email address field. To avoid receiving unsolicited communications at a personal or business email address, registrants may wish to create an email address specifically for communication and correspondence related to their trademark filings at the USPTO.

For qualified in-house counsel and attorneys representing themselves in a matter, the TEAS forms will still require two different email addresses: one for the owner email address field and one for the attorney email address field. For technical reasons related to the TEAS forms, these addresses cannot be identical.

Certain treaty filers exempt from email requirement. If the registrant is a national of a country that has acceded to the Trademark Law Treaty, but not to the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks, the requirement to provide the registrant’s email address does not apply. 37 C.F.R. §2.23(c); see TMEP §301.02(a).

See TMEP §§609-609.02(b) and §609.02(d)-(f) regarding establishing and changing the correspondence address.

1612.01(b)    Domicile Address of Mark Owner

Registrants must provide and keep current the address of their domicile and inform the USPTO of any changes to that address. 37 C.F.R. §2.189; see In re Chestek PLLC, 92 F.4th 1105, 1113, 2024 USPQ2d 297, at *8 (Fed. Cir. 2024) (domicile address requirement affirmed); TMEP §601.01(c). A registrant’s domicile address will determine whether the registrant is required to be represented before the USPTO by an attorney who is an active member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of a U.S. state, Commonwealth, or territory (a qualified U.S. attorney). 37 C.F.R. §§2.11, 11.1, 11.14(e); see TMEP §§601, 602, 1612(b). Although determinative of whether a qualified U.S. attorney is required, the requirement for an owner’s domicile address is separate from the requirement for an attorney. 37 C.F.R §2.189.

See TMEP §§601.01-601.01(b)(1) regarding determining an owner’s domicile and §601.01(d) regarding hiding the domicile address.