Author: Thomas James

How to Do a Trademark Image Search

As I mentioned in my last blog post, the USPTO’s new online Trademark Center now includes a feature that makes it much easier to conduct a trademark image search. This means that instead of scouring the Trademark Design Search Code Manual to try to identify the design attributes that a logo or proposed design possesses, you can ask the new AI-powered search system to look for marks that are similar to an image that you upload. In this article, I will describe the step-by-step process for conducting a trademark image search of the USPTO’s database.

Step-by-Step Guide to USPTO Image Search

Time needed: 10 minutes

An illustrated step-by-step guide to searching with the USPTO’s new Trademark Image Search tool

  1. Log in to your USPTO account.

    You can access the Trademark Image Search tool only when you are logged in to a USPTO account. Visit uspto.gov and click the “MyUSPTO” tab at the top of the screen. You will be offered three options: “Log in with your USPTO.gov account,” “Create a USPTO.gov account,” or “Reactivate my USPTO.gov account.” Make the appropriate selection for your situation.USPTO.gov trademark image search step 1 - home page with Trademarks drop-down displayed

  2. Navigate to the “Search Trademarks” page

    Open the “Trademarks” tab at the top of the screen. Then click on the “Search trademarks” link. This will load the primary search bar page. The dropdown menu on the left defaults to “Wordmark” but you will change this in the next steps.USPTO.gov trademark image search step 2 - trademark search page

  3. (Optional) Initiate a design code search.

    ou can skip this step if you are only interested in using the USPTO’s new Image Search tool. The USPTO recommends using both the new tool and the old design code method. To search for an image the old-fashioned way, select Design code from the dropdown menu on the left end of the search bar. Then type your search code into the text box. Alternatively, you can opt to search by field tags. To do that, select Field Tags and Search builder from the dropdown menu. When you select this option, you can search for design codes using the “DC” field tag. Searching with field tags has the advantage of enabling you to build a search string specifying more than one parameter.USPTO.gov trademark image search with "Design Code" search slectedd in the Search bar

  4. (Optional) Find the right design code(s).

    Design codes are listed in the USPTO’s Trademark Search Design Code Manual. Each one consists of a series of numbers. Top-level categories are represented by the first couple of numbers. The numbers to the right represent increasingly specific subcategories. It can take a while to find the appropriate design code(s) for a logo you wish to search.USPTO.gov trademark image search - table of categories of design search codes

  5. Select “Image search” from the dropdown menu.

    To access the new Image Search tool, select “Image search” from the dropdown menu on the left side of the search bar.USPTO.gov trademark image search bar

  6. Click the camera icon.

    A small image of a camera is located on the right end of the search bar. Click it. A pop-up window inviting you to upload your image will appear.USPTO.gov trademark image search box for uplooading image

  7. Upload the image.

    You can upload your image three ways. (1) Drag and drop it into the box; (2) Click “Browse files” to select a local drive file; (3) Paste a direct image URL into the box. Ensure your file is a JPEG, PNG, GIF, or TIFF under 2 MB, then click “Next.”USPTO.gov trademark image search showing an image uploaded and ready to move to the next step

  8. Ensure “Image search” is selected.

    The search bar should now display a thumbnail image of the logo you uploaded. The dropdown menu should have “Image search” selected.USPTO.gov trademark image search showing the image search bar after an image is uploaded

  9. Correct the dropdown selection, if needed.

    If the dropdown menu is displaying “Wordmark” or anything else, change it to “Image search.” You should now have a screen displaying a thumbnail of your image, “Image search” selected in the dropdown menu, and small camera and magnifying glass icons at the right end of the search bar.USPTO.gov trademark image search bar after image has been uploadeed with "Image search" selected

  10. Click the Search icon.

    Click on the magnifying glass icon to execute the image search. A screen displaying one or more trademark records matching your query should appear. The illustrative trademark image search I conducted using the Nike logo turned up several matches. You can filter these using the controls in the left sidebar. For example, you could limit results to “live” registrations and applications, if you wish. You can also restrict the results to specific classes of goods and services. You can also sort the results in various ways, such as by relevance, alphabetically, etc.USPTO.gov trademark image search results showing a series of NIke logos

  11. Click a record for more details.

    To learn more about a record that turned up in your search results, click on it. That will take you to a page with a lot of information about it. You’ll find an image of the mark, the serial and/or registration number, as applicable, the class(es) of goodsUSPTO.gov trademark image search detail for the record of a result of a search for a Nike logo

  12. Scroll for more information.

    If you scroll down the webpage for a record, you will find a huge amount of information about the trademark and its owner.USPTO.gov trademark image search results showing details for one of the records

  13. Review prosecution history

    You can find information about the trademark’s prosecution history and relevant documents.USPTO.gov trademark image search results record detail showing prosecution history and other information

  14. Toggle to TSDR.

    The Trademark Center enables you to toggle from the trademark image search results to the Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) entries for a record. In TSDR, you can select three different tabs: (1) Status; (2) Documents; (3) Maintenance. The “Status” tab provides much of the same information you can find by clicking on a record in the Search results page. The Documents and Maintenance tabs provide access to much more.USPTO.gov trademark image search:, showing the TSDR page for one of the records in the search results

  15. Access documents.

    The Documents tab in TSDR gives you access to the documents that have been filed in regard to the trademark application or registration you are reviewing. These include things like specimens of use, registration certificates, office actions and responses, and others. The “Maintenance” tab provides information about renewals and such.USPTO.gov trademark image search, showing a list of entries in the TSDR "Documents" tab for a search result

  16. Review filings.

    You can access a document listed in the Documents tab by clicking on the hypertext link for it. This enables you to review the specimen of use that was submitted in support of an application for registration of a particular trademark, for example.Nike ogo displayed on a wall, used as a trademark specimen of use for the Nike logo

Limitations

The Trademark Center’s new trademark image search functionality will be a major timesaver in those cases where the image you are searching matches one that is in the USPTO’s database of trademark registrations and applications. When I searched with the familiar Nike logo and sorted results by relevance, for example, a number of exact matches turned up, and I gained almost immediate access to a wealth of information about it. The new Image Search should be very useful for conducting knock-out searches in those situations where a proposed logo happens to match an existing one.

Its capabilities are a bit more limited, however, when it comes to advanced trademark searches for potentially similar images. I tested it by uploading a random picture of a mosquito.

USPTO.gov Uploading an image of a mosquito

These are the first few of at least a thousand results this image search turned up:

USPTO.gov search results page

This was even after filtering out “dead” results, limiting the search to IC 005, and sorting the results by relevance.

Being a Minnesotan, I can sort of understand the relevance of the ones with airplanes in them. Both airplanes and mosquitoes fly, after all. And mosquitoes can indeed be big here. The likelihood that consumers would confuse any of these logos with a mosquito, however, seems to me to be about as close to zero as it is possible to get.

Currently, “Field tags and Search builder” is a single selection in the dropdown menu, and there isn’t a field tag that represents the results of an image search. This means that when you are using field tags, it is still necessary to rely on traditional design search codes. It would be a major upgrade if the USPTO allowed users to combine Image Search and Field Tag searching together, allowing you to constrain visual AI results by the strict specifications set out in field tags.

Nevertheless, I am still enthusiastic about the Trademark Center’s new AI-assisted image analysis functionality. I am sure it will also be very useful in terms of drafting acceptable descriptions of logos to include in applications.

The Trademark Center

With the 2026 additions, the Trademark Center changes everything from how you search to how much you pay.

For over two decades, TEAS (Trademark Electronic Application System) was the legacy software portal at the USPTO for all electronic trademark filings. The USPTO transitioned from TEAS to a new system called The Trademark Center for new application filings on January 1, 2025.  The Trademark Center has since been phased in to include registration maintenance/renewal filings.

In the old days, a trademark applicant initially needed to decide which electronic form to use – “TEAS Standard” or “TEAS Plus.” Filers who conformed their applications to TEAS Plus requirements were rewarded with discounted filing fees. Those forms have been retired now. Instead, filers log in to the Trademark Center and file a unified application.

In a previous post, I predicted that new trademark fees would be coming. They are here.

With the 2026 additions, the Trademark Center changes everything from how you search to how much you pay.

USpto building howing the Trademark Center

What is the Trademark Center?

The Trademark Center is the USPTO’s new, unified cloud-based platform for drafting, filing, and managing trademark applications. It replaces the legacy TEAS and TESS portals. You access it by visiting USPTO.gov, clicking on the Trademarks tab, selecting “Apply online,” and then pressing the “Trademark Center” button.

What new features does it have?

The new Trademark Center is intended to make it easier for users to read, navigate, and edit their applications. In addition, it has autosave, automatically saving your work every 60 seconds. The old system did not have that. And it has continuous fee calculation. The old system required a user to wait until the application was completed before being presented with the “tab.”

The new system centralizes management of applications, from filing a new application to managing your existing trademark docket. In addition to filing a new application, you can use the Trademark Center to submit registration renewals under Section 8, Section 15, Combined Sections 8 and 9, and Combined Sections 8 and 15. It also facilitates team collaboration.

There are also new AI-assisted features. I will get to those in a minute.

 What does Trademark Center filing cost?

 The USPTO now uses a unified baseline fee model instead of the old multi-tiered TEAS pricing. This table summarizes the changes:

 

  Old TEAS System New Trademark Center
Base Application Fee $250 (Plus) / $350 (Standard) $350 per class
Custom ID Surcharge Included in Standard fee +$200 surcharge per class
Lengthy Description Fee None +$200 fee per 1,000 characters over 1,000
Incomplete Application Surcharge Handled via Office Action +$100 “insufficiency fee”

As you can see, the discounted fee reward for complying with TEAS Plus requirements is gone. Now everyone has to pay the $350 fee per class of goods/services.

Under the TEAS system, you qualified for the discounted TEAS Plus fee if you used one of the pre-approved descriptions for a class of goods or services. (The pre-approved descriptions are listed in the Trademark Identification Manual.) The USPTO has transitioned from offering you a reward for using a pre-approved description to requiring you to pay a penalty if you do not. Under the new system, it will cost you an additional $200 per class if you want to create your own custom description.

New fees

The new system also limits custom descriptions to 1,000 characters. If you go over that, you will be assessed an additional fee of $200 for every increment of up to 1,000 characters over the limit.

If you omit some item or necessary information from your application, you will not only draw an Office Action, which will lengthen the examination process; you will also incur a $100 “insufficiency fee.”

Other fees

As before, there are additional fees beyond the initial application filing fee. For example, you will need to pay another fee when you request an extension of time to file a statement of use, and when you renew a registration. These are not the only additional fees you might need to pay. For more information, visit the USPTO fee page.

Does the Trademark Center offer AI assistance with descriptions?

 Yes. The USPTO has integrated machine learning to facilitate application descriptions. This is particularly useful for claims in logos and/or colors.

Descriptions for trademarks must meet certain specific requirements, including a claim of all colors used in color marks. The new AI assistance for trademark descriptions and color claims offers suggestions of what to include in your description of the mark in your trademark application.

Does the Trademark Center offer image search?

 Yes. As announced in an April 2, 2026 USPTO Alert, the USPTO now offers image search functionality. Previously, it was necessary to manually scour a compilation of design codes to find ones possibly matching the features of your logo or design mark. Now you can upload your logo and the system will use AI to generate the required mark descriptions and color claims for you. You can then choose to view and use the AI-generated suggestions if you’d like.

Suggestions are editable, so you can fine-tune them if needed.

As always, remember that generative-AI is not perfect. It can and does make mistakes. You should always review an AI suggestion carefully before accepting it.

The USPTO’s new image search functionality, obviating users’ need to navigate a design code manual and guess at appropriate design codes is the real crown jewel of the 2026 improvements to Trademark Center. Because this feature is a game-changer for independent artists, designers, and small businesses, I will be doing a deeper dive into it in my next blog post.

What is the Class ACT assistant?

The new Trademark Classification Agentic Codification Tool, or “Class ACT,” is a kind of agentic AI that immediately assigns international classes to unclassified applications. It also can assign the design search codes and pseudo marks that make these records searchable. According to a Trademark Center update, this reduces a process that used to take 5 months to something that can be completed in a matter of seconds.

If an intent-to-use application was filed in TEAS, can the Statement of Use be filed in Trademark Center?

 Yes. The USPTO moved all pre-registration intent-to-use forms (including the Statement of Use and Requests for Extension of Time) into the unified Trademark Center portal. You should be able to access your previously filed intent-to-use application when you log in to Trademark Center.

Can the Trademark Center be used to renew registrations?

Yes. You can use Trademark Center to maintain and renew registrations even if a registration was issued under the old TEAS system. You do not need to re-register the trademark in Trademark Center.

 

Summary

What is the Trademark Center?

The Trademark Center is the USPTO’s new, unified cloud-based platform for drafting, filing, and managing trademark applications

What new features does the Trademark Center have?

Easier use and navigation; autosave; continuous fee calculation; centralized management of applications and registrations; facilitation of collaboration; AI image search; and AI assistance with descriptions and color claims

What does Trademark Center filing cost?

Trademark Center implements a unified baseline fee model of $350 per class, plus additional fees for custom ID, lengthy description, and incomplete applications.

Does the Trademark Center offer AI assistance with descriptions?

Yes, Trademark Center offers AI assistance with creating descriptions for logos and design marks, and color claims

Does the Trademark Center offer image searching?

Yes. Users applying to register a trademark in Trademark Center no longer have to enter design codes; they can upload an image of the logo or design.

What is the Class ACT assistant?

The Class ACT assistant is the Trademark Classification Agentic Codification Tool. It can assign international classes, design search codes, and pseudo marks to records to make them searchable.

If an intent-to-use application was filed in TEAS, can the Statement of Use be filed using the Trademark Center?

Yes. Applications previously filed in TEAS have been migrated to Trademark Center and may be accessed there.

Can the Trademark Center be used to renew registrations?

Yes. Trademark Center can be used to maintain and renew trademark registrations.

Planning a new brand name or logo?

If you are preparing a brand name or logo for your business, check out my extensive Trademark FAQs page to understand what it takes to qualify for protection, and read about my trademark services.

Can You Copyright a Band Name?

It is one of the most common questions artists, entrepreneurs, and other content creators ask. It is also based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how intellectual property works. While both copyrights and trademarks give owners exclusive rights, they protect entirely different things for entirely different purposes.

You just finished a killer garage rehearsal with your new band. You finally agreed on the perfect name, and you are ready to launch a website, release an album, and book your first gig. Naturally, your first instinct is to protect your new brand before someone else steals it. So, you call up a legal professional and ask: “Can you copyright a band name? If so, how?”

5 tuba players posing with their instruments, not sure if they can copyright a band name

It is one of the most common questions artists, entrepreneurs, and other content creators ask. It is also based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how intellectual property works. While both copyrights and trademarks give owners exclusive rights, they protect entirely different things for entirely different purposes.

If you want to protect your music, your brand, and your business identity, you need to understand where copyright ends and trademark begins. I will start with the short answer first.

Can you copyright a band name? No. Copyright ownership cannot be claimed in the name of a band or any other kind of name. Copyright protection does not exist for titles, slogans or short phrases, either. In some cases, trademark rights can be claimed in a name, title, slogan or short phrase, but copyright cannot be.

Names, titles, slogans and short phrases are too short to qualify as “expression”, and they do not meet the low threshold of human creativity required for a copyright. Instead, identifying a brand is the core of trademark law.

What is the difference between a copyright and a trademark?

Copyrights and trademarks are both types of intellectual property, and they both give their owners exclusive rights, but they protect different interests, for different purposes. Copyrights protect creative expression. Trademarks protect brand identifiers.

  • Copyrights protect creative expression. They protect interests in the output of human minds, things like music, lyrics, artwork, website text, photographs, sound recordings, music videos, and other kinds of expression.
  • Trademarks protect brand identifiers. They protect names, logos, slogans, and domain names used to identify goods or services. The purpose of a trademark is to act as a source indicator and prevent consumer confusion in the marketplace.

The USPTO has a handy reference chart explaining how the kinds of intellectual property differ: Patent, Trademark or Copyright.

When does a copyright actually come into existence?

You get a copyright when, and only when, all of the following things are present:

  1. Human expression. Copyright protects expression, not facts or ideas. And the expression must be created by a human, not by an animal, a machine or natural forces.
  2. Originality. The work must be independently created. Copyrights cannot be acquired by copying someone else’s work.
  3. Creativity. People frequently conflate the “originality” and “creativity” requirements, but they are really different things. Band names are a great example. You could come up with a completely original name, one that nobody else has ever used before, and yet still fail the creativity test. “Smashing Pumpkins,” for example, was a completely original name. No band had ever used it before. But it does not get copyright protection. Why not? Because the courts and the Copyright Office have decided that names, titles, slogans and short phrases do not involve a high enough level of creativity.
  4. Fixation in a tangible medium. The work must be fixed in a tangible medium of expression. This means it exists in a sufficiently permanent or stable form so that it can be perceived, reproduced, or communicated for more than a transitory period. Examples include writing lyrics on paper, recording an MP3, or painting on canvas.

When all of these requirements are met, copyright protection is automatic. You do not need to register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office for the copyright to exist, but you generally do need to register it if you ever want to file an infringement lawsuit in court

Why You Actually Need a Trademark for a Band Name

Getting back to the difference between trademarks and copyrights: when it comes to protecting a band name, a song title, a short phrase or a slogan, a trademark is what you need.

Trademarks do not have to be particularly creative. Look at IBM. It’s just an acronym for “International Business Machines.” Nevertheless, it is a valid trademark. As I reported in a previous blog post, even the word “The” is a registered trademark now.

You might be asking, “Well, how can someone claim the exclusive right to use the word ‘the’? Virtually every book, story, and article that’s written has “the” in it. Are all these writers guilty of infringement?

The answer is no. And that is because a trademark only gives its owner the exclusive right to use it as a source identifier. Unlike a copyright, it does not give its owner an exclusive right to use the mark as creative expression.

The 5 Core Requirements for a Trademark

The requirements for a valid trademark indicate the limited scope of its enforceability. To secure and maintain a trademark, you must satisfy five elements:

  •  Use in commerce
  • Source identification
  • Distinctiveness
  • No likelihood of confusion
  • Nonfunctionality.

1. Use in Commerce & Source Identification

“Use in commerce” means the mark must be used commercially. If you market musical performance services under a particular band name, you might be able to claim trademark rights.

It must be used for the purpose of identifying the source of your musical performance services, though. Merely using something as a band name isn’t enough. For example, if you and some friends have formed a band to practice in a garage, but you haven’t actually started seeking gigs and have no definite plans to do so, choosing a name is not enough. To get a trademark, you must use the name commercially. That does not mean you have to be a commercial success. It just means you need to have begun selling your services, such as booking performances.

2. Distinctiveness and No Likelihood of Confusion

“Distinctiveness” means your band name must distinguish your band from others. If you name yourselves, “A Jazz Band,” you will probably fail this test. Descriptive terms generally lack distinctiveness. Arbitrary or completely made-up names have a much better chance. If you mention Pearl Jam, or the Rolling Stones, or Nirvana, everybody knows exactly which band you mean.

Distinctiveness is directly related to the requirement that the name must not cause a likelihood of confusion among consumers. You won’t get trademark protection if you call yourselves Counting Crows, for instance, because consumers will confuse you with the existing band.

3. Nonfunctionality

The nonfunctionality requirement means that a trademark must not serve a utilitarian purpose other than being a source identifier. For example, you can’t claim the sound of a drum as a trademark for your band. As great as it might be to claim the exclusive right to use the sound of a drum and put other bands out of business, you cannot do that because it serves a fundamental musical function.

You often hear people say that a band has a “trademark sound,” like the wailing sounds that Jimi Hendrix produced on his guitar. In reality, no one can claim trademark rights in a particular musical sound or style, though, as those are functional elements of musical performances.

Once you have a trademark that meets these requirements, you should apply to register it as a trademark. This can be started even before you begin using it in commerce, so long as you have a definite plan to start using it soon.

Key Takeaways for Musicians and Bands

And so the key takeaways from all of this are:

  • Copyrights protect expression; trademarks protect brand identifiers.
  • You cannot claim a copyright in a name, title, slogan or short phrase, but you might be able to claim a trademark
  •  If you want to claim a copyright in a song, you must fix it by writing it down or recording it.
  • To claim a trademark in a name, you must use it in commerce as a source identifier.
  • Choose a distinctive name that does not simply describe your music and is completely different from other bands.
  • Protect your trademark by registering it.

Ready to Protect Your Band?

Navigating the intersection of copyright and trademark law can be challenging, but taking the right legal steps early protects your creative work from copycats. Whether you are ready to book your first commercial gig, launch a website, or officially register your band name and other brand identifiers, securing your intellectual property is the smartest move for your band. Contact me if you need help registering a trademark or protecting your creative works.