1301.04(h)(iv)(C) Webpages
Webpages 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. In re Florists' Transworld Delivery, Inc., 119 USPQ2d 1056, 1062 (TTAB 2016).
Webpages lacking a reference to the services may be acceptable if they show use of the mark in rendering the services. See TMEP §1301.04(i), Example 14 (OUTERNAUTS).
Webpages from social-networking websites should be scrutinized to ensure that the mark is properly 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].").