(486) Citation of Opinions to the
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
It has been the policy of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
(TTAB) that TTAB opinions not designated as precedential should not be
cited to the TTAB and, if cited, are disregarded. E.g., General
Mills Inc. v. Health Valley Foods, 24 USPQ2d 1270, 1275 n.9 (TTAB
1992). The TTAB is changing its policy with respect to the citation of
opinions not designated as precedential. Accordingly, the Board will
henceforth permit citation to any TTAB disposition as follows:
. The TTAB will continue its current practice of designating all final
decisions as either precedential or not precedential. Unless specifically
designated as precedential, an order on a motion should be considered not
precedential.
. The TTAB will continue its practice of considering precedential decisions
as binding upon the TTAB.
. A decision designated as not precedential is not binding upon the TTAB but
may be cited for whatever persuasive value it might have.
. Citation to all TTAB decisions should be to the United States Patent
Quarterly, if the decision appears therein; otherwise, to a USPTO public
electronic database. If a non-precedential decision does not appear in the
United States Patent Quarterly or the USPTO's public electronic databases,
the citing party should append a copy of the decision to the motion or
brief in which the decision is cited.
. Decisions of other tribunals may be cited to the extent allowed and for
the purposes permitted by the tribunal that issued the decision.
The TTAB will continue to post all its final decisions at:
http://des.uspto.gov/Foia/TTABReadingRoom.jsp. The files of TTAB
proceedings are available at: http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/.
In due course, the TTAB will make revisions to the Trademark Trial and
Appeal Board Manual of Procedure (TBMP) consistent with this notice.
December 27, 2006 J. DAVID SAMS
Chief Administrative Trademark Judge
[1314 TMOG 1360]
Top of Notices (486) December 31, 2019