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, 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, 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 twenty-five judges sitting at the TTAB [as of October 2015].

Judge	Appointed	Prior professional experience	Education
Gerard F. Rogers (Chief Judge)	1999	Trademark Examining Attorney, 1987-90; Assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Trademarks, 1990-92; TTAB Staff Attorney, 1992-99	B.A., University of Massachusetts Amherst; J.D. magna cum laude, New England School of Law
Susan M. Richey (Deputy Chief Judge)	2014	Professor and Associate Dean, Univ. of New Hampshire School of Law, 1996-2014; Private practice (Los Angeles, California, 1983-1996)	B.A., University of Baltimore; B.S. College of William and Mary; J.D., University of Maryland
Michael B. Adlin	2012	TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; USPTO Office of External Affairs; Private Practice	B.A., Duke University, J.D., Boston University School of Law
Marc A. Bergsman	2006	Trademark Examining Attorney; Trademark Managing Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice (Washington, D.C.)	B.A., Miami University, J.D. Cleveland Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University
David E. Bucher	1998	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	B.A., Eastern Mennonite University; J.D., George Washington University
Peter W. Cataldo	2006	Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney	B.A., Canisius College; J.D., Albany Law School
Cheryl S. Goodman	2014	Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney	B.A., University of Illinois, J.D., Florida State College of Law
Francie R. Gorowitz	2012	Trademark Examining Attorney; Private Practice (Los Angeles)	B.A., State University of New York at Cortland, J.D., Albany Law School
Cindy B. Greenbaum	2012	Private Practice (New York and Washington, D.C.); Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; TTAB Managing Interlocutory Attorney (2006-2011)	Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; J.D., New York University School of Law
David K. Heasley	2015	Private Practice for more than three decades, including with Silverberg, Goldman & Bikoff, and more recently with Smith, Gambrell & Russell	B.A., The Johns Hopkins University; J.D., University of Maryland School of Law
Susan J. Hightower	2012	Pirkey Barber PLLC (Austin, Texas)	B.A., Austin College; M.A., University of Texas; J.D. Stanford Law School
Linda A. Kuczma	2011	Banner & Witcoff (Chicago, Ill.)	B.S., St. Mary's University; J.D., Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Karen Kuhlke	2005	Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice	B.A., University of Kansas; M.A., Columbia University; J.D., Georgetown University Law Center.
Angela Lykos	2010	Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice	B.A., M.A., The Johns Hopkins University; J.D., Duke University Law School.
Cynthia C. Lynch	2015	Private Practice; Attorney-Advisor at the International Trade Commission; USPTO Assistant Solicitor: USPTO Administrator for Trademark Policy and Procedure	B.A., University of North Carolina; J.D., University of Virginia School of Law.
Anthony R. Masiello	2012	Private Practice (Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.)	Harvard College; J.D., Harvard Law School.
David Mermelstein	2006	TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; TTAB Supervisory Attorney; Trademark Examining Attorney	B.A. New College, Hofstra University; J.D., American University, Washington College of Law.
T. Jeffrey Quinn	1988	Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney	B.A., Tulane University; J.D., Tulane University School of Law.
Lorelei Ritchie	2008	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	A.B., Stanford University; J.D., Columbia University.
Ellen J. Seeherman	1987	Private Practice; Trademark Examining Attorney, 1982; Staff Assistant, Special Assistant to the Assistant Commissioner for Trademarks, 1982-1987	A.B., Brandeis University; J.D., New York University School of Law.
Thomas Shaw	2011	Associate Solicitor at the USPTO, 2007-August 2011; Managing Attorney (1997-2007), Senior Attorney (1994-1997), and Examining Attorney (1989-1994) at the PTO	B.A., The George Washington University; J.D., University of Miami School of Law.
Jyll Taylor	2006	TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Trademark Examining Attorney	B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; J.D., Howard University School of Law.
Thomas W. Wellington	2007	TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Trademark Examining Attorney; Private Practice	B.A., University of Maryland at College Park; J.D., American University Washington College of Law.
Frances Wolfson	2010	Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice	B.A., U.C. Santa Barbara; J.D., U.C.L.A..
Albert Zervas	2005	Trademark Examining Attorney; TTAB Interlocutory Attorney; Private Practice (New York and Washington, D.C.)	B.A. and J.D., University of Virginia.

See also

• Electronic System for Trademark Trials and Appeals
• 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)