Updating names and ownership in official records

Your business moves, changes its name, or brings in a new owner. You update the website and the invoices, but an old email address still sits on your trademark record. The creative work has not changed, so this is easy to miss. Fix it anyway: unless a U.S.-licensed attorney represents you, the owner's email on a USPTO trademark record is where the office sends its correspondence.2 A stale address means notices you never see.

Be clear about what changed

Start with the event itself and name it. It is one of three things:

• Same owner, new contact details. You moved or changed your email. That is a correspondence update.
• Same owner, new name. The owner's legal name changed, for example because you married and took a new last name.1 That is an owner name change.
• New owner. You sold the mark or the business, or the right passed to another person or company. That is an assignment: a transfer of ownership.

Write the event down in one plain sentence and gather the documents that prove it. A new trading name or a redesigned logo does not tell you which of the three happened.

Do not treat every change as an address correction. The USPTO handles ownership and owner-name changes separately from correspondence updates,1 and its contact-update form says outright that it is not for changing the owner name or transferring ownership.2

Make a short list of the affected records

Use your inventory to list every application and registration the change touches: its serial or registration number, the office, and who handles it. Check your agreements as well: a license, distribution agreement or maintenance arrangement may name a particular person or address.

Keep the transaction separate from the database entry. A copyright transfer is valid only if it is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights or the owner's authorized agent, and the Copyright Office records documents without deciding whether they are legally effective.4 Updating an official record, or your own inventory, does not prove who owns the right. Find the signed document that moved the rights before you file anything. Have an IP attorney draft or review that document before you sign and record it: the USPTO issues a notice of non-recordation when a trademark assignment was made without the goodwill of the business, or when the cover sheet does not match the document.1

Follow the current route for the office

U.S. trademarks

If only the contact details changed, file the Change Address or Representation (CAR) form in TEAS. It updates the owner's email, mailing address and domicile address, and attorney details. A domicile address entered in its own field is not shown publicly.2 The CAR form does not produce a new registration certificate; for a certificate showing the new address, file a Section 7 Request, which has a fee.2

If the owner or the owner's name changed, work in this order:

1. Record the change in Assignment Center (assignmentcenter.uspto.gov). Complete the cover sheet (Form PTO-1594) and upload the supporting document.1 The recording fee is listed under fee code 8521 on the USPTO fee schedule.3 File online: online filings are recorded in less than a week, paper filings within 20 days.1
2. Watch for the notice of recordation about seven days later. If it does not arrive, contact the Assignment Recordation Branch.1
3. Check the owner in TSDR. Wait one week after the notice, then open the record in TSDR (tsdr.uspto.gov) and read "Current Owner(s) Information".1
4. File a manual update if TSDR has not changed. If the prosecution history says "Ownership records not automatically updated", file the form for your stage: a Voluntary Amendment before publication, a Post-Publication Amendment after publication but before registration, or a Section 7 Request (with a fee) once registered.1
5. Update the correspondence and attorney details too. Recording a new owner does not change them; file the CAR form for that.1

Two timing rules. If your application is based on intent to use (Section 1(b)), you can assign it only after you file an Amendment to Allege Use or a Statement of Use, unless you are transferring it to the successor of your business.1 If your U.S. protection comes from an international registration under the Madrid Protocol, record ownership changes with WIPO's International Bureau, not in Assignment Center.1

U.S. copyrights

Recording a copyright transfer with the Copyright Office is voluntary, but it pays: it can establish priority between conflicting transfers, and it gives the public constructive notice of the transfer once the work is registered and the document identifies it by title or registration number.4 Submit the signed transfer document itself; a description of the transfer is not enough.4 File through the online Recordation System at record.copyright.gov and work out the fee with Circular 12A or the fee calculator on the Office's recordation page.5 The effective date of recordation is the day the Office receives your complete submission, and recorded documents become open to public inspection.5

Check the result then connect it to everyday work

Save the submission record and the notice of recordation. Compare the official entry with the change you intended, including the spelling and the identity of the owner. If you spot an error on a trademark cover sheet you just filed, call the Assignment Recordation Branch at once; once an assignment is recorded, the correction follows section 503.06 of the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure.1 Use that route rather than filing new guesses.

Finally, update your internal inventory and tell the people who rely on it. An official record with the right address helps only if your team also knows who receives notices and who acts on them. Start the next renewal, permission request or business review from the same clear picture.