The register, translated
Short, honest definitions for the terms every search result throws at you.
Trademark status
Every federal record carries a status line like LIVE / REGISTRATION / Issued and Active. The first word is the one that matters. Live marks can block you. Dead ones mostly can't.
Dead trademark
A dead mark was abandoned, cancelled, or expired. No federal registration rights survive, though the old owner may still hold common-law rights if they kept using the name. Dead is not the same as free.
Live trademark
A registration or application the USPTO currently treats as active. Live registered marks are the strongest conflicts. Live pending applications are conflicts in waiting.
Serial vs. registration number
Every application gets a serial number the day it lands. A registration number only exists if the mark actually registers. A record showing 0000000 there never made it.
Principal vs. Supplemental Register
The Principal Register carries the full legal presumptions. The Supplemental Register holds descriptive marks - real federal rights and the R symbol, but no presumption of validity.
Section 8 declaration
Proof you still use the mark, due between years 5 and 6, then again at year 10 and every renewal after. Miss it and the registration dies. A surprising number of dead marks went exactly this way.
Intent-to-Use (ITU)
A filing that reserves a mark before it's used in commerce. It timestamps your priority. ITU applications show up in searches as pending conflicts even when the product doesn't exist yet.
Office action
An examiner's refusal or requirement letter. The applicant gets three months to answer, give or take. No answer, no mark.
Trademark classes
The USPTO sorts everything you can sell into 45 international classes. Fees are charged per class, and conflicts weigh heaviest inside your own class and its close neighbors.
Prosecution history
The dated event log of an application's whole life at the USPTO, filing through registration or abandonment. Public record. And often more honest than the status label.