ESTTA pre-filing and technical requirements

ESTTA filing is mandatory for all filings

In the event that ESTTA is unavailable due to technical problems, or when extraordinary circumstances are present, submissions may be filed in paper. A Petition to the Director with the required showing and fee must accompany an extension of time to oppose, notice of opposition, petition to cancel or answer submitted in paper form. All other paper filings must be accompanied by a written explanation of such technical problems or extraordinary circumstances, addressed to the Board.

NOTE: Requests for extension of time to oppose, and notices of opposition against applications filed under Trademark Act § 66(a) (Madrid Protocol) must be filed through ESTTA without exception. For more information see TBMP § 110.01.

Plan ahead

It is your responsibility to prepare and file your submissions in advance of any applicable deadline. Filers may call the TTAB with questions about filing at 571-272-8500 or 800-786-9199 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Alternatively, filers may send non-urgent email inquiries to ESTTA@uspto.gov, and include a description of the problem, the unique tracking number, i.e., "the ESTTA Tracking Number,"  and the proceeding number (if any), and a telephone number for contact. The Board will respond to email inquiries within two business days. Board personnel cannot guarantee that any filing issue will be resolved prior to a deadline.

Pre-filing checklist

1. Check your file names. Make sure that file names do not contain special characters such as (‘!@#$%^&*(){}|).
2. Include proof of service. As required by Trademark Rule 2.119, proof of service must be made for every submission except for the notice of opposition or the petition to cancel.
3. Check your entire document before filing:

• Is all text easily readable and are all pages with images clear and visible?

• Do all pages appear, and are they in the proper order?

• Does the text on every page appear upright? The Board requires each page displayed so it can be read from top to bottom.

• Does the document comply with Trademark Rule 2.126? Filings must be clear and legible, formatted properly and within any applicable page limits.

• If possible, has the document been processed so that the text is searchable?

For more information see TBMP § 110.01.

Technical requirements

ESTTA has been tested [using Microsoft Edge version 99.1 and Google Chrome version 91.0] on PC architecture. While every effort has been made to use standard programming, the USPTO cannot guarantee that ESTTA will function properly using browsers or operating systems other than those identified above.

NOTE: If you are using Internet Explorer, please ensure that the Compatibility View (Tools>Compatibility View settings) is disabled or not enabled. Internet Explorer on the Macintosh platform will NOT permit a proper image attachment.

• Format of attachments: 
  • Each attachment must be in a PDF format and formatted for 8.5" x 11" paper in black and white text or graphics. 
  • PDF filings should be rendered in 300 dpi resolution.
• Color documents: 
  • While documents containing color may be submitted, they may severely limit the number of pages which can be uploaded.
  • Color images are often unnecessary, and scanning in color often results in a larger file size than grayscale or black and white file sizes.
• Size of attachments: 
  • Attachments may not exceed 6 megabytes per file.
  • A single submission may include more than one PDF file, but the combined size of all attached files may not exceed 53 megabytes.
• Large submissions: 
  • Large files can cause problems during attachment and transmission, and problems with the Board’s handling and access of the submission. 
• Submitting Evidence: 
  • Don’t submit unnecessary evidence. An unnecessarily hefty filing is no more persuasive than a carefully selected smaller filing. For instance: An entire catalog, book, or magazine need not be entered in the record when the filing party relies on or references only a single page, chapter, or article.
  • If your filing is still large, consider dividing it into two or more separate filings, in logical segments, filed consecutively. Clearly and briefly label the contents of each separate filing (e.g., "Smith Deposition vol. 2," or "Opposer’s Third Notice of Reliance, Exhs. F–L").
  • An exhibit to a notice of opposition or a petition for cancellation is not of record and will not be considered in evidence, except if the exhibit is a current status and title copy of plaintiff's registration or application prepared by the USPTO, or a current copy of the registration or application information from the electronic records of the USPTO showing the current status and title.
  • Although trial testimony must be filed in its entirety, only the relevant portions of discovery depositions should be filed under a notice of reliance.
  • A testimony declaration should not be filed as an exhibit to a notice of reliance - it should be filed as separate testimony.
• Deposition exhibits
  • Deposition exhibits must be numbered or lettered consecutively, and marked with the number and title of the proceeding and the name of the party offering the exhibit.
  • The Board may refuse to consider unmarked or improperly marked exhibits.  
• For more information regarding submissions in inter partes proceedings, see Trademark Rules 2.120(k) use of discovery deposition, answer to interrogatory, admission or written disclosure); 2.122 (Matters in evidence); 2.123 (Trial testimony in inter partes cases); 2.125 (Filing and service of testimony); and 2.126 (Form of submissions to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board). Also see TBMP § 110 (Electronic Filing Using ESTTA). For more information regarding submissions in ex parte proceedings, see Trademark Rules 2.126 (Form of submissions to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board); and 2.141 through 2.145. 
• More information on attachments: For additional information regarding attachments to ESTTA filings, see TBMP § 110.02.

ESTTA offers a variety of forms for the most common types of filings. Choose the form which most closely identifies your filing. If the filing embodies two or more motions, choose the primary or most significant motion. When filing in an existing proceeding, if there is no form that describes the filing, select the appropriate “general filings” option. Each filing will be considered based on its content, not based on its caption or title.

Go to Choosing your ESTTA form.

Petitions to Director

Do not use ESTTA to file Petitions to the Director. Petitions to the Director must be filed using the online petition form in the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS).

For more information on the Petition to the Director procedure, see TMEP Chapter 1700.

Who can sign your ESTTA filings?

All submissions to the TTAB must be signed by the applicant or party on whose behalf the submission is filed, or by an attorney representing the party or applicant. ESTTA filings may be signed by either of the following methods:

• Placing a combination of letters, numbers, spaces, or punctuation marks adopted as a signature between two forward slash symbols (e.g.:/John Q. Public/) on the ESTTA cover sheet in the signature block
• Signing the paper in pen, scanning the paper, and adding it as an attachment to the form prior to transmission.

For more information, see 37 CFR §§ 2.119(e); 2.193(c); 37 CFR § 11.18; Fed. R. Civ. P. 11; TBMP §§ 106.02, 203.03, 309.02, 311.01, 502.04, 527.02, 1202.03.

Filing fees are required for some filings

ESTTA accepts payment for certain filings that require a fee: extensions of time to oppose, notices of opposition, petitions for cancellation, counterclaims, notices of appeal, and amendment to registrations involved in a TTAB cancellation proceeding. The payment may be made by credit card (MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover), electronic funds transfer, or through an existing USPTO deposit account. See TBMP § 118.03.

See the learning and resources webpage for information regarding how to pay fees, including how to establish a USPTO deposit account.

A list of current trademark fees is at 37 CFR § 2.6.

The fee for a counterclaim is the same as the fee for a petition for cancellation as indicated in 37 CFR § 2.6(a)(16), and is governed by Trademark Rule 2.111(d).

Currently, ESTTA does not support electronic fee processing for motions to divide an application involved in a TTAB proceeding. Accordingly, payment of the fee for a motion to divide an application should be by written authorization to debit the filer's USPTO deposit account and the fees will be subsequently processed by the Intent to Use Division.

Filing receipt and other correspondence from the TTAB

Upon a successful ESTTA submission, the filer will receive an email receipt with the ESTTA tracking number and other filing information. The Board will send the filing receipt, notice of orders and other correspondence to the email address of record for each party and the applicant. Accordingly, it is critical that ESTTA filers make sure that all parties' email addresses are current, correct, and complete prior to transmission.

When using ESTTA, and periodically throughout a proceeding, all parties should assure that the record in TTABVUE indicates the current and complete street address AND email address. Parties are responsible for maintaining the correct correspondence information with the Board. Failure to do so may result in missing deadlines with adverse consequences, including default judgment against a nonresponding party.

Email addresses

Upon successful completion of an ESTTA submission, the filer will receive filing confirmation by email, at the email address provided by the filer. The Board may also send orders (or notice of orders) to both parties by email. Accordingly, it is critical that ESTTA filers make sure that both parties' email addresses are correct and complete prior to transmission.

You may enter more than one email address, separated by comma and a space, in the email address field in ESTTA, up to a total of 800 characters. The filing information and any resulting order (if sent by email) will be sent only to the entered addresses.

Parties should take care to promptly update the address to which correspondence should be sent (both street address and email) whenever appropriate. Note that although email orders and notices can be sent to more than one email address, the Board will only send paper copies to the single correspondence address of record.

Use the "Change of address" form to change or update a party’s or legal representative’s street or email correspondence address.

For more information regarding correspondence in TTAB matters, see TBMP § 117.

Tips for creating and attaching PDFs

The following recommendations will keep file size to a minimum, and are good practices regardless of the size of your ESTTA filing. Whenever possible, PDF files should be:

• Text-searchable, and created directly from a word-processing file rather than from being printed out and scanned. PDF files created from scanned documents are typically larger in size and lower in quality than those created directly from word processing files or other electronic media. If you must scan, 300 dpi is fine for most purposes. Higher resolution rarely creates a noticeably better image, but will create a larger file. When scanning documents containing text, set your software to create a text-searchable PDF file. The TTAB may refuse to consider exhibits that are not clear and legible. 37 CFR 2.126(a)(2).
• Optimized. Adobe PDF software can optimize a file, often reducing its size substantially without any loss in quality. This is especially important for scanned documents. 
• Clear and legible. The Board requires all pages to be clear and legible, with each page displayed so it can be read from top to bottom.

Additional guidance

View the ESTTA User's Guide or view our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs.)

ESTTA tips and known issues

ESTTA save session

The TTAB is aware that ESTTA’s save session feature does not always work as expected. If you encounter a problem with ESTTA’s save session and want to take advantage of ESTTA’s save session feature for your filing, please re-start your filing and try saving your session once again. We apologize for any inconvenience. 

TTAB ‘s next generation filing system – named TTAB Center – is under development, and offers those users participating in closed beta testing an improved save and share feature. At present, the feature may only be used for filing notices of opposition. If you want to file a notice of opposition and would like to try TTAB Center’s improved save and share session, you may volunteer to become a Closed-Beta tester by emailing TTABFeedback@uspto.gov. We are looking for additional testers.

Call us if you don't see your submission in TTABVUE a week after filing.

When you file in ESTTA, monitor TTABVUE to make sure your submission is uploaded. If you don't see your submission a week after you file, contact TTAB for assistance.

TTAB Assistance Center 571-272-8500 Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET

Questions about your filing

Filers may call the TTAB with questions about filing at 571-272-8500 or 800-786-9199 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Alternatively, filers may send non-urgent email inquiries to ESTTA@uspto.gov, and include a description of the problem, the ESTTA tracking number, the proceeding number (if any), and a telephone number for contact. The Board will respond to email inquiries within two business days. Board personnel cannot guarantee that any filing issue will be resolved prior to a deadline.