Structured Form Search

• From the TESS search page, click on the link for Structured Form Search

• If you wish to retrieve more than 50 records, click on the drop down menu box next to the Records Returned box, and select either 100 or 200.

• Type a term or terms in the first search box.
You Must enclose phrases in quotations (i.e. "blue cheese").

• From the drop down menus below Title Field, select Basic Index (combined MP+PM+FM) and Translation Index. This will search word marks (including those that contain any punctuation marks, or any blank spaces that have been converted to hyphens), and English equivalents to any foreign words or characters.

• From the drop down menu below Operator, choose OR.

• Click on the Submit Query button.

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After submitting your query, a list of trademarks matching your search parameters will display. Click on the Word Mark link of the trademark of interest to view detailed information.

• Click on the Check Status button to link to the latest information. Any changes made after the registration date do not appear in the main record, but will be recorded here. This can include changes in ownership, address changes, prosecution history, and the attorney of record.

• To return to the list of trademarks from the detailed view, click on your browser’s back button. Or you can hold down the alt key and press the left arrow.

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***VERY IMPORTANT***
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!!!!

Looking for Alternate Spellings

Unlike other search engines, TESS does not automatically look for alternate spellings of your search terms. Therefore, it is often necessary to search for more than one term in order to complete a comprehensive preliminary trademark search.

• To return to the TESS search screen to do additional searching, click on the Structured button.

• Type the alternate spelling of your search term or terms in the first search box

• Make sure that from the drop down menus below Title Field, Basic Index (combined MP+PM+FM) and Translation Index are still selected. This will again search word marks (including those that contain any punctuation marks, or any blank spaces that have been converted to hyphens), and English equivalents to any foreign words or characters.

• Make sure that from the drop down menu below Operator, OR is selected.

• Click on the Submit Query button.

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Navigating the Database

The following buttons are available on the search screens to help you navigate between search screens, lists, and documents. Click on the Help button at any time to access a menu of help topics.

Search tips:

• It is possible to automatically search plurals. If the plurals option is turned on (from the initial TESS Search screen), TESS will automatically search for singular, plural, and possessive forms of a word whether you enter the singular or plural. A search for dog will retrieve dog, dogs or dog’s. So will the search dogs. Truncation and/or pattern matching (see below) is not recommended with the plurals feature.

• The standard truncation symbol is $ (matches 0 or more continuous characters.) It can be used for right, left, or internal truncation.

• Including a number after the $ limits truncation to that number of characters (i.e. polymer$2)

• The right truncation symbol for a single, non-blank character is ?

• The truncation symbol for searching the Basic Index and the Translation Index only is the *. Right and left truncation is possible, and this search strategy should be faster and more efficient than standard truncation searching. For example, *dog* should retrieve all marks containing those three consecutive characters (Such as weatherdog, mydoggybag, and who let the dogs out.)

• Enclose exact phrases in " " i.e. "blue cheese". Avoid using a space or the word OR between your search terms. Search terms separated by a space or by an OR will retrieve any trademark containing either or both words. The results will be very broad and imprecise.

• You cannot truncate words in " ".

• Boolean operators:
  

  and	to narrow retrieval	red and dog
  or	to increase retrieval	heart or cardiac
  xor	contains either the first or the second term, but not both	cat xor dog
  not	contains one term and eliminates another	fabric not clothing
  same	finds terms in the same paragraph	wine same spirits
  with	finds terms in the same sentence	computer with software
  adj	finds terms within a specified number of words	red adj6 dog

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• Operator precedence:

• Nesting allows you to put parentheses around terms in your search statement to specifically indicate the order that your search terms will be processed. i.e. golf and (ball? or club?)

• The database is not case sensitive; therefore, searching Needle or needle will retrieve the same results.

• You can view all of the searches you have performed in a session by clicking on the view search history link from either the structured search screen, or the free form search screen. This will show all searches, regardless of which searching strategy was used.

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Free Form Search (Recommended only for experienced searchers)

The Free Form Search allows you to search for information in more than two fields at a time. All of the Search Tips that are listed above are valid in both the Structured Search and the Free Form Search.

• From the TESS Search screen, click on the Free Form Search link. If you wish to retrieve more than 50 records, click on the drop down menu box next to the Records Returned box, and select either 100 or 200.

• If you want TESS to automatically find plurals, click in the Plurals drop down menu and select yes.

• Type a term or terms in the search box, followed by the label for the field(s) you would like to search. The following example shows how to set up the same search that was used in the Structured Search:

"red dog" [BI] [TI]

• Click on the Submit Query button.

• TESS will search for word marks (including those that contain any punctuation marks, or any blank spaces that have been converted to hyphens), and English equivalents to any foreign words or characters.

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Search Fields

Following is a list of all the available fields, with the abbreviated field name or code:

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Browse Dictionary

This feature is available as a button on both the Structured Form Search screen and the Free Form Search Screen. It is used to enter a term, select an index and to see about 10 items in the dictionary around that term. An entry from the resulting items can be selected and, with a right click, copied to the clipboard so that it may later be pasted to your search statement. To restrict the dictionary browse to a specific index, include the index name with your browse term. For example, the browse BOONE[MP] will retrieve dictionary entries around the word BOONE from the MP (word mark with punctuation) index, as shown below.

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CAUTION:

Trademark searches performed on TESS are preliminary, and the strategies outlined in this handout should not be considered comprehensive. It is strongly suggested that you read all TESS help screens to learn about the limitations of the database and different search techniques. Although some marks may be listed as DEAD, that does not necessarily mean that they are not still being used in commerce. It may be wise to contact the owner, since common law rights to a trademark could come into play.

If you have questions which are not answered here, it is recommended that you contact an attorney.

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Comments to: Jan Comfort