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Notice of Data Security Incident
We recently identified a data security incident that impacted domicile information in certain trademark application data made available between August 23, 2023, and April 19, 2024. You are receiving this notice because your email address is listed as the contact for the trademark owner in at least one of these applications.
There is no action you need to take with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), but in the interest of full transparency, we are bringing this matter to your attention.
U.S. trademark law requires applicants to include their domicile addresses in trademark applications. This helps us determine if applicants are required to hire a U.S.-licensed attorney to represent them before our agency (called the U.S. counsel rule). The U.S. counsel rule is an important tool in combatting fraudulent trademark filing activity.
On April 19, 2024, we discovered there were domicile addresses that should have been hidden from public view but which were inadvertently exposed as we transitioned to a new IT system. These addresses appeared in records that could have been retrieved through a bulk data set on our website. This data set is typically used in academic and economic research.
At no point were the impacted domicile addresses visible when users searched trademark records through our search system or our trademark documents database.
Importantly, this incident was not the result of malicious activity, and we have no reason to believe that your domicile information has been misused. Nevertheless, we take all data security concerns seriously, and we’ve implemented corrective measures.
How we addressed the issue
When we discovered the issue, we blocked access to the impacted bulk set, removed files, implemented a patch to fix the exposure, tested our solution, and re-enabled access.
Moving forward
re committed to data security and are taking steps to prevent incidents like this from happening in the future. We sincerely regret this error and are updating our process for creating and publishing bulk data files. Additional testing, spot checks, and process improvements will help us ensure domicile addresses in the are properly masked going forward.
For more information
We will not send additional notices or communications regarding this incident. If you’re contacted about the incident by anyone you believe is impersonating the USPTO, or if you have any questions or concerns, please contact TMdomicile@uspto.gov.
 Henry “Jamie” Holcombe
Chief Information Officer
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
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