USPTO's automated trademark search system

The article describes the computerised trademark search system developed in 1984-1985 as the first stage of the USPTO's automation plan, and now fully operational. The system, called 'T-Search' includes not only automatic phonetic searching, but also capabilities of full text search with indexing features and couples them with the capability to search the figurative elements of trademarks. The database contains records of pending applications and registered trademarks, both those in force and those abandoned, cancelled or expired after 5 March, 1984, and the electronic data includes a 'HELP' facility explaining how the system is not to be used. There are records in the system of almost three quarters of a million trademarks, of which about a quarter of a million include figurative elements, and the database is updated daily. The system currently supports 70 workstations and 33 graphic printers. Retrieval is on the basis of registration or serial numbers, design mark codes, wordmarks, phonetics or syllables, and search terms may be related by Boolean operators and may be truncated on either left or right for root word search. A typical example of a search by a trademark examiner is described.