Research Guides: Trademarks: Searching for Historical U.S. Trademarks

Historical U.S. Trademarks

Searching for older U.S. trademarks often uses the same resources as searching for more recent trademarks.
Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) records the registration of all live trademarks ever issued and dead trademarks since 1984.
Until 1870 trademark protection was covered by U.S. common law.
From 1837 to approximately 1870 logo trademarks were approved as design patents and published in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents.
Trademarks were first registered separately beginning in 1870 by the U.S. Commissioner of Patents and were published in an annual listing of trademark registrants within the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents.
The years 1843-1871 and 1876-1973 of the Annual Report can also be accessed directly in the HathiTrust Digital Library.
1872-1875 are available online from the Smithsonian Library.
Beginning in 1872 trademarks were published weekly in the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office.