Distinctive: Able to identify and distinguish a single source of goods or services. Suggestive, arbitrary, and fanciful trademarks are inherently distinctive.
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Display: To show a copy of a work, either directly or by means of a film, slide, television image, or any other device or process or, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to show individual images nonsequentially.
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Disclosure Document: The USPTO eliminated its Disclosure Document Program on February 1, 2007.
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Disclaimer (trademarks): Statement in an application that the applicant does not claim exclusive rights to an unregistrable portion of the trademark, such as a generic word.
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Disclaimer (patent): A patentee, whether of the whole or any sectional interest therein, may, on payment of the fee required by law, make disclaimer (giving up all or part of the owner's rights to enforce claims) of any complete claim(s), stating therein the extent of their interest in such patent.
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Dilution: Weakening or devaluation of a famous trademark when a similar or identical trademark is used in commerce, even with unrelated goods or services. Owners of famous marks have superior rights to restrict the use by third parties that dilute (blurring or tarnishment) of the famous mark.
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Digital Transmission: A transmission in whole or in part in a digital format.
Read MoreDiD: Defense in Depth is multiple layers of security to provide added protection to IT resources.
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DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.
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Development Expense: Costs associated with developing, protecting or improving the commercial viability of Intellectual Property.
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Designation: The Contracting States or Contracting Parties for which protection of an invention is sought in an international application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) or in an international design application filed under the Hague Agreement. The filing of a Request in an international PCT application constitutes the designation of all Contracting States bound by the PCT on the international filing date.
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Design Search Code Manual: Manual listing numerical codes, called "design search codes," for various types of designs and images. Design search codes are used to search the trademark database.
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Design Search Code: Numerical code assigned to a specific type of design or image, used to search our database for trademarks that include that type of design.
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Design Patent Accelerated Examination: A program offering faster examination for design patent applications.
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Design Code Search Manual: Lists the numerical codes for searching designs in the USPTO's trademark database (TESS).
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Descriptive Trademark: Trademark that merely describes some aspect of the goods or services without identifying or distinguishing the source of those goods or services. Descriptive trademarks are registrable only in certain circumstances and are not considered inherently distinctive.
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Derivation: A derivation proceeding is a trial proceeding conducted at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to determine whether (i) an inventor named in an earlier application derived the claimed invention from an inventor named in the petitioner's application, and (ii) the earlier application claiming such invention was filed without authorization.
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Deposit Account: An account that is established in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), upon payment of a fee for establishing such an account, for the convenience in paying any fees due, in ordering services offered by the USPTO, copies of records, etc.
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Deferred Patent Prosecution: A procedure allowing applicants to delay examination of a patent application.
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Default Judgment: Decision in a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board proceeding when a defendant doesn't respond on time to a complaint.
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