IP skills · Trademark law
Trademark Law Course: What It Should Cover and How to Learn It
Trademark law protects the names, logos and other signs that tell customers who a product comes from. This page sets out what a U.S. trademark law course should cover, how the ways to learn it compare, and where Wysebridge teaches it.
What trademark law covers
A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device used to identify the source of goods or services. In the U.S., rights come from use in commerce; federal registration under the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1051 and following) adds nationwide priority, a presumption of validity and remedies that unregistered marks do not get. Registration is handled by the USPTO, using the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP).
Trademark practice has two halves. Clearance and registration: choosing a mark that can be protected, searching for conflicts, filing, answering examiners' refusals and keeping the registration alive. Enforcement: deciding whether another mark is likely to cause confusion, oppositions and cancellations at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), and litigation.
Unlike patent practice, there is no separate USPTO registration exam for trademarks. Anyone may file their own application. Foreign-domiciled applicants must be represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney, and representing others is the practice of law.
Who needs to learn it
Founders and marketers
Choosing a name that can be registered, and not one that invites a demand letter, is cheaper than rebranding.
Trademark paralegals
Filing, docketing response deadlines and maintenance filings are daily work.
In-house counsel and brand teams
Clearance, enforcement and portfolio decisions across markets.
Law students and new attorneys
Trademark work is a common entry point into IP practice.
What a good trademark law course covers
A complete U.S. trademark course follows a mark from selection to enforcement, citing the Lanham Act and the TMEP along the way.
- 01
What a trademark is
Source identification, use in commerce, common-law rights and what federal registration adds; service marks, trade dress and collective marks.
15 U.S.C. 1051, 1127
- 02
The spectrum of distinctiveness
Generic, descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary and fanciful marks, and acquired distinctiveness (secondary meaning).
15 U.S.C. 1052(e), (f); TMEP 1209, 1212
- 03
Grounds for refusal
Likelihood of confusion with a registered mark, descriptiveness, deceptiveness, surnames, geographic terms and other Section 2 bars.
15 U.S.C. 1052; TMEP 1207
- 04
Clearance searching
Searching USPTO records with Trademark Search (which replaced TESS in 2023), state registers and common-law use, and assessing the risk.
USPTO Trademark Search
- 05
Filing bases and the application
Use-based, intent-to-use, foreign-registration and Madrid-extension filings; identifying goods and services and choosing classes; filing in Trademark Center.
TMEP 806, 1402
- 06
Examination and office actions
Responding to refusals and requirements: three months to respond, with one three-month extension for a fee, for most applications.
37 CFR 2.62; TMEP 711
- 07
Publication and opposition
Publication in the Official Gazette, oppositions and extensions of time at the TTAB.
15 U.S.C. 1063; TBMP
- 08
Intent-to-use and registration
Notice of allowance, statements of use and extensions for intent-to-use applications.
15 U.S.C. 1051(b), (d); TMEP chapter 1100
- 09
Keeping the registration
The Section 8 declaration of use between the fifth and sixth years, and combined Section 8 and 9 renewals every ten years.
15 U.S.C. 1058, 1059
- 10
Infringement and dilution
Likelihood-of-confusion factors in court, false designation of origin and false endorsement, and dilution of famous marks.
15 U.S.C. 1114, 1125
- 11
International protection
The Madrid Protocol and planning protection beyond the U.S.
15 U.S.C. 1141 and following; TMEP 1900
Ways to learn trademark law, compared
Trademark basics are well documented by the USPTO for free. Structured courses add the doctrine, the strategy and practice applying it.
How Wysebridge covers trademark law
Wysebridge does not sell a stand-alone trademark course. Trademark law is a five-chapter module of U.S. Intellectual Property Law, with AI-specific issues in our AI course.
Both courses are also included in Wysebridge ONE.
Course · 20 chapters
U.S. IP Law
$297 per course, or $397 with the certificate track
The Trademark Law module: distinctiveness, clearance and risk, application and prosecution, infringement and the TTAB, and the Madrid Protocol.
- Ch. 3 The Power of a Name: Trademark Fundamentals and the Spectrum of Distinctiveness
- Ch. 4 Clearing the Path: Trademark Search, Clearance, and Risk
- Ch. 5 At the Examiner's Desk: Trademark Application and Prosecution
- Ch. 6 When Marks Collide: Infringement, Confusion, and the TTAB
- Ch. 7 Marks Without Borders: Madrid Protocol and Global Trademark Strategy
Course · 18 chapters
IP Law in the Age of AI
$297 per course, or $397 with the certificate track
Trademarks and AI-generated content, and right of publicity claims over faces and voices.
- Ch. 10 Brands in the Machine
- Ch. 12 Your Face, Your Voice
Free tutorial
How to use USPTO Trademark Center
Free
A free walkthrough of filing a trademark application in the USPTO's filing system.
Patent bar prep does not cover trademarks; the patent registration exam is patents only.
Frequently asked questions
Related
Sources
- USPTO: Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP)
- USPTO: Trademark laws and rules
- USPTO: New office action response deadlines (2022)
- USPTO: Trademark Search replaces TESS (2023)
- WIPO Academy: IP eLearning courses
Checked October 2026. For education and general information; not legal advice.
Study the trademark module.
Five chapters of U.S. Intellectual Property Law take a mark from selection to enforcement.