TSDR vs. Public PAIR and Patent Center: File Access Compared

Q: Public PAIR was the patent system — and it is gone

Public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) was the patent-side counterpart: it let the public check the status and file history of patent applications. The USPTO retired Public PAIR in 2022 and consolidated its functions into Patent Center. So if you are looking up a patent application today, you use Patent Center — not Public PAIR, and definitely not TSDR.

People routinely mix up TSDR and Public PAIR because they sound like two versions of the same thing. They are not. One is for trademarks and one was for patents — and the patent one no longer exists. Getting this straight saves you from looking for a patent in a trademark system, or hunting for a tool the USPTO already shut down.

TSDR is the trademark system

TSDR — Trademark Status & Document Retrieval, at tsdr.uspto.gov — is where you check a trademark's status and pull its file history. It is purely a trademark tool. To search for trademarks in the first place, you use the separate Trademark Search system that replaced TESS in 2023.

Public PAIR was the patent system — and it is gone

Public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) was the patent-side counterpart: it let the public check the status and file history of patent applications. The USPTO retired Public PAIR in 2022 and consolidated its functions into Patent Center. So if you are looking up a patent application today, you use Patent Center — not Public PAIR, and definitely not TSDR.

How the systems line up

Search for a trademark: Trademark Search system (formerly TESS).
Check a trademark's status and file: TSDR.
Search patents: Patent Public Search (which replaced the old patent full-text search tools).
Check a patent application's status and file: Patent Center (which replaced Public PAIR and Private PAIR).

Why the confusion persists

The two sides of the USPTO mirror each other — both have a search tool and a status/document tool — so the systems feel parallel. But trademarks and patents are governed by different law and different offices within the USPTO, and their online tools are entirely separate. The clean mental model: TSDR for trademark files, Patent Center for patent files.

Using the right tool

If a mark is what you are researching, everything you need is in TSDR and the Trademark Search system — start with what each trademark status means. If you find yourself needing patent data, that is a different system entirely, and TSDR will not have it.