Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) is a body within the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) responsible for hearing and deciding certain kinds of cases involving trademarks. These include appeals from decisions by USPTO Examiners denying registration of marks, and opposition proceedings filed against trademark applications. TTAB panels hear hundreds of claims each year asserting that trademarks should not be registered because they are generic, disparging, or confusingly similar to existing marks. Such challenges to registration are initially considered by trademark examiners, whose judgment may be appealed to the TTAB. Decisions of the TTAB may, in turn, be appealed to a United States district court, or the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The TTAB is also responsible for hearing certain kinds of inter partes proceedings, including oppositions to registration, cancellation proceedings against registered marks, and concurrent use proceedings where a party alleges its mark is entitled to joint registration, carving geographic territory out of that held by a registered mark.

Practices and procedures for litigating before the TTAB are published in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Manual of Procedure, commonly known as the "TBMP".

Judges of the TTAB

Judges of the TTAB are appointed by the United States Secretary of Commerce in consultation with the Director of the USPTO. From 1999 to 2009, a change in the statute permitted a number of TTAB judges to be appointed by the USPTO Director, but this arrangement was challenged as unconstitutional under Article Two, Section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution (the Appointments Clause), which permits the United States Congress to "vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments". Congress addressed this by passing a 2008 amendment which specifies that the Secretary of Commerce is responsible for such appointments, and permitting the Secretary to retroactively appoint those persons named by the USPTO Director. There are currently eighteen judges sitting at the TTAB [as of October 2011].

• Gerard F. Rogers (Chief Judge): Appointed to TTAB in 1999; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney, 1987-90; Assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Trademarks, 1990-92; TTAB Staff Attorney, 1992-99; Education: B.A., University of Massachusetts Amherst; J.D., magna cum laude, New England School of Law.

• Marc A. Bergsman: Appointed to TTAB in 2006; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney; Trademark Managing Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice; Education: B.A., Miami University, J.D. Cleveland Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University.

• David E. Bucher: Appointed to TTAB in 1998; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney, 1981-84; Senior Examining Attorney, 1984-85; Legislative Assistant, Office of U.S. Senator Paul Simon, 1985-86; Director, Trademark Examining Organization, 1987-96; Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Trademarks, 1996-98; Education: B.A., Eastern Mennonite University; J.D., George Washington University.

• Peter W. Cataldo: Appointed to TTAB in 2006; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Education: B.A., Canisius College; J.D., Albany Law School.

• Charles M. Grendel: Appointed to TTAB in 1999; Prior professional experience: Private Practice; Trademark Examining Attorney, 1990-94; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney, 1994-99; Education: B.A., Stanford University; J.D., University of Oregon School of Law.

• Terry E. Holtzman: Appointed to TTAB in 1999; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney, 1983-90; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney, 1990-99; Education: B.A. with honors, American University; J.D., George Mason University.

• Linda A. Kuczma: Appointed to TTAB in 2011; Prior professional experience: Banner & Witcoff (Chicago, Ill.); Education: B.S., St. Mary's University; J.D., Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

• Karen Kuhlke: Appointed to TTAB in 2005; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice; Education: B.A., University of Kansas; M.A., Columbia University; J.D., Georgetown University Law Center.

• Angela Lykos: Appointed to TTAB in 2010; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice; Education: B.A., M.A., Johns Hopkins University; J.D., Duke University Law School.

• David Mermelstein: Appointed to TTAB in 2006: Prior professional experience: TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; TTAB Supervisory Attorney; Trademark Examining Attorney; Education: B.A. New College, Hofstra University; J.D. American University, Washington College of Law.

• T. Jeffrey Quinn: Appointed to TTAB in 1988; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Education: B.A., Tulane University; J.D., Tulane University School of Law.

• Lorelei Ritchie: Appointed to TTAB in 2008; Prior professional experience: Private Practice; Arbitrator and judge pro tem, Orange and Los Angeles counties, California; Intellectual Property Manager, UCLA; Adjunct Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles; Assistant Professor, Florida State University School of Law; Education: A.B., Stanford University; J.D., Columbia University.

• Ellen J. Seeherman: Appointed to TTAB in 1987; Prior professional experience: Private Practice; Trademark Examining Attorney, 1982; Staff Assistant, Special Assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Trademarks, 1982-1987; Education: A.B., Brandeis University; J.D., New York University School of Law.

• Thomas Shaw: Appointed to TTAB in August 2011; Prior professional experience: Associate Solicitor at the USPTO, 2007-August 2011; Managing Attorney (1997-2007), Senior Attorney (1994-1997), and Examining Attorney (1989-1994) at the PTO; Education: B.A., The George Washington University; J.D., University of Miami School of Law.

• Jyll Taylor: Appointed to TTAB in 2006; Prior professional experience: TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Trademark Examining Attorney; Education: B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; J.D., Howard University School of Law.

• Thomas W. Wellington: Appointed to TTAB in 2007; Prior professional experience: TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Trademark Examining Attorney; Private Practice; Education: B.A., University of Maryland at College Park; J.D., American University Washington College of Law.

• Frances Wolfson: Appointed to TTAB in 2010; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice; Education: B.A., University of California - Santa Barbara; J.D., U.C.L.A..

• Albert Zervas: Appointed to TTAB in 2005; Prior professional experience: Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice; Education: B.A. and J.D., University of Virginia.

See also

• Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Manual of Procedure

External links

• Website of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
• The TTABlog - Keeping Tabs on the TTAB (Blog by John L. Welch, a Harvard-educated intellectual property attorney and frequent lecturer on TTAB practices and procedures)