United States trademark law A trademark is a word, phrase, or logo that identifies the source of goods or services. Trademark law protects a business' commercial identity or brand by discouraging other businesses from adopting a name or logo that is "confusingly similar" to ...

, the Supplemental Register is the secondary register of

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

s maintained by the

United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Al ...

. It was established in 1946 by Subchapter II of the

Lanham Act The Lanham (Trademark) Act (, codified at et seq. () is the primary federal trademark statute of law in the United States. The Act prohibits a number of activities, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and false advertising. ...

, to allow the domestic registration of trademarks that do not meet all the requirements for registration on the

Principal Register In United States trademark law, the Principal Register is the primary register of trademarks maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It is governed by Subchapter I of the Lanham Act. Having a mark registered under the Princip ...

, so that the holder(s) of such a mark could register it in another country. This was necessary because under the

Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, signed in Paris, France, on 20 March 1883, was one of the first intellectual property treaties. It established a Union for the protection of industrial property. The convention is ...

foreign registration was not permitted in the absence of domestic registration, and the trademark laws of countries outside the U.S. often have less stringent registration requirements for marks. The only requirement for registration on the Supplemental Register is that a mark be ''capable'' of distinguishing goods or services, not that it ''actually serve'' such a function. Owners of the registrations on the Supplemental Register are still permitted to sue for

trademark infringement Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attached to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the licence). Infringement may ...

in federal court based upon their statutory rights created by owning a federal registration, but must prove that the registered term actually functions as mark. Unlike a mark registered on the

, the Supplemental Registration provides no evidence of trademark rights in the registered term in a court proceeding. The supplemental registration is contestable, i.e., it may be cancelled if a third party proves earlier use or superior rights. A Supplemental Register listing does not in itself provide evidence that the listed mark is actually a trademark for purposes of the

Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a process established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the resolution of disputes regarding the registration of internet domain names. The UDRP curren ...

(UDRP).

References

External links

Explanation of the Supplemental Register from QuizLaw

From the

Legal Information Institute The Legal Information Institute (LII) is a non-profit, public service of Cornell Law School that provides no-cost access to current American and international legal research sources online alaw.cornell.edu The organization is a pioneer in the de ...

United States trademark law {{US-law-stub