Written by Igor Demcak
CEO & Legal Mind
A disclaimer is a statement in your trademark application that clarifies that you do not claim exclusive rights to specific elements of your trademark - namely, elements that are generic, descriptive, or otherwise unregistrable or belonging to the general public.
A disclaimer does not affect the registrability of your mark or its parts. It's simply a statement that the disclaimed elements are freely available for others to use in the context of comparable goods or services.
A disclaimer can be included in an application at the time of filing. If it is missing, the USPTO will issue an office action asking the applicant for correction.
Disclaimers follow the following standardized format:
"No claim is made to the exclusive right to use [THE DISCLAIMED TERM] apart from the mark as shown."
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If my office action response gets accepted, what happens next?
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