Trademark Trial and Appeal Board


The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is a body within the United States Patent and Trademark Office 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, disparaging, or confusingly similar to existing marks. Such challenges to registration are initially considered by trademark examining attorneys, 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.

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, 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 twenty-six judges sitting at the TTAB .
JudgeAppointedPrior professional experienceEducation
1999Trademark Examining Attorney, 1987-90; Assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Trademarks, 1990-92; TTAB Staff Attorney, 1992-99B.A., University of Massachusetts Amherst; J.D. magna cum laude, New England School of Law
2019Private Practice; Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Texas School of Law; Assistant Professor of Law, Levin College of Law, University of Florida; Professor of Law at the Southern University Law Center, Southern UniversityB.S, Louisiana State University; J.D. with high honors, Duke University School of Law
2012TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; USPTO Office of External Affairs; Private PracticeB.A., Duke University; J.D., Boston University School of Law
2006Trademark Examining Attorney; Trademark Managing Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice B.A., Miami University; J.D. Cleveland Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University
2006Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory AttorneyB.A., Canisius College; J.D., Albany Law School
2016Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory AttorneyB.S., Davidson College; J.D., Wake Forest University School of Law
2019Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory AttorneyB.A., Boston University; J.D., American University Washington College of Law
2019Private Practice; TTAB Interlocutory AttorneyB.A., Boston College; J.D., Columbus School of Law
2014Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory AttorneyB.A., University of Illinois; J.D., Florida State University College of Law
2012Private Practice ; Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; TTAB Managing Interlocutory AttorneyWharton School, University of Pennsylvania; J.D., New York University School of Law
2015Private Practice B.A., The Johns Hopkins University; J.D., University of Maryland School of Law
2019Private Practice B.A., State University of New York at Albany; J.D., Brooklyn Law School
2020Government Counsel; In House Counsel; Private PracticeB.A., University of Michigan; J.D., Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
2011Private Practice B.S., St. Mary's University; J.D., Loyola University Chicago School of Law
2005Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private PracticeB.A., University of Kansas; M.A., Columbia University; J.D., Georgetown University Law Center
2016Private Practice B.A., Stanford University; J.D., Columbia Law School
2020Private Practice B.A., Florida Atlantic University; J.D., Hofstra University School of Law; LL.M. with high honors, John Marshall Law School
2010Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private PracticeB.A., M.A., The Johns Hopkins University; J.D., Duke University Law School
2015Private Practice; Attorney-Advisor at the International Trade Commission; USPTO Assistant Solicitor: USPTO Administrator for Trademark Policy and ProcedureB.A., University of North Carolina; J.D., University of Virginia School of Law
2006TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; TTAB Supervisory Attorney; Trademark Examining AttorneyB.A. New College, Hofstra University; J.D., American University
2015TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; TTAB Attorney in the Office of Trademark Quality Review and Training; Trademark Examining Attorney; Private PracticeB.A. University of Pennsylvania; J.D., George Washington University National Law Center
2011USPTO Associate Solicitor; Trademark Managing Attorney; Trademark Senior Attorney; Trademark Examining AttorneyB.A., The George Washington University; J.D., University of Miami School of Law
2006TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Trademark Examining AttorneyB.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; J.D., Howard University School of Law
2007TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Trademark Examining Attorney; Private PracticeB.A., University of Maryland at College Park; J.D., American University Washington College of Law
2010Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private PracticeB.A., U.C. Santa Barbara; J.D., U.C.L.A.
2005Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice B.A. and J.D., University of Virginia