Trademark Specimens and Drawings: What the USPTO Accepts and Why It Refuses

Almost every trademark application includes a drawing, the picture of the mark that the registration will cover. Most also need a specimen, the real-world example showing the mark in use with your goods or services. The examining attorney (the USPTO lawyer who reviews your application) checks the specimen and compares it with the drawing. If the specimen is the wrong kind, or the two do not match, the usual result is an Office Action: the USPTO's formal letter listing what it refuses or requires.

This guide follows the USPTO's rules (37 CFR 2.51 to 2.59) and the May 2026 Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP), the USPTO's examination manual. It is general information, not legal advice.

When you need a specimen

Every registrant files specimens later, with the Section 8 or 71 declaration between the fifth and sixth year after registration and then every ten years (see our guide to Section 8 and 9 deadlines).

You need one specimen per class. One specimen can support several classes if it qualifies for each.

Goods and services follow different rules

For goods, the mark must appear on the goods, their packaging, labels or tags attached to them, or a "display associated with the goods," which must be "of a point-of-sale nature" (37 CFR 2.56(b)(1)). For services, the rule is broader: use "in the sale of the services," including providing them, or "in the advertising of the services," with "a direct association between the mark and the services" (37 CFR 2.56(b)(2)).

Advertising for goods can still work if it includes a photograph of the mark on the goods or their packaging (TMEP 904.04(b)). An ad for services "must contain a reference to the services," though "a general reference to the trade, industry, or field of use" can be enough (TMEP 1301.04(f)(ii)).

Placement matters too. A small design over a shirt pocket may read as a trademark, while "a larger rendition of the same matter emblazoned across the front of a garment" may be refused as mere decoration (TMEP 1202.03(a)).

Web pages as specimens

For goods, a web page qualifies as a point-of-sale display if it (1) shows a picture or description of the goods, (2) shows the mark in association with the goods, and (3) "provides a means for ordering the identified goods" (TMEP 904.03(i)). Every web-page specimen, for goods or services, must show the URL and the date you accessed or printed it (37 CFR 2.56(c)).

What counts as a way to order (TMEP 904.03(i)(C)):

• "Shopping cart," "add to cart" and "buy" buttons usually do; for downloadable software, so do download buttons.
• A phone number or email address alone usually does not, unless the page says to use it for orders ("call now to buy") or gives enough product and ordering detail.
• "Where to buy" and "Contact Us" links usually do not.
• A price helps but does not decide the question.

A page taking pre-orders "for goods that are not yet available does not show use of the mark in commerce" (TMEP 904). For services, a web page is advertising and needs no buy button, as long as it refers to the services.

Software, apps and SaaS

Downloadable software is goods. A screenshot of the program running with the mark on screen is a standard specimen: an acceptable specimen "might be a photograph or screen shot of a computer display screen projecting the identifying trademark," and "it is not necessary that purchasers see the mark prior to purchasing the goods" (TMEP 904.03(e)). The download requirement applies only to web-page specimens: a page that "simply advertises the software without providing a way to download, purchase, or order it" is unacceptable.

Online software and app-based services are services, so advertising that names the service can work. Sign-in screens are common specimens, and one without wording about the service may still be accepted if the page as a whole, or your description of it, makes the service clear (TMEP 1301.04(h)(iv)(A)). For a service delivered through an app, "Mere depiction of the mark in the screenshot without sufficient depiction of the activity identified in the services does not establish service mark use" (TMEP 1301.04(h)(iv)(D)). Make sure your identification describes the service you actually provide; our ID Manual guide covers that wording.

Mockups, edited images and AI-generated images

The rule is direct: "An artist's rendering, a printer's proof, a computer illustration, digital image, or similar mockup of how the mark may be displayed, or a photocopy of the drawing required by § 2.51, are not proper specimens" (37 CFR 2.56(c)). The TMEP applies this to digitally created, digitally altered and mockup images (TMEP 904.04(a)). The USPTO's own example: a T-shirt seller superimposes the mark on a stock image of a hangtag, and the application "will be rejected because the submitted specimen is a mockup or digitally created image" (USPTO, common problems).

Warning signs the TMEP lists (TMEP 904.04(a)(ii)) include a mark that "appears to float over the product or container," pixelization around the mark, and a website screenshot missing its URL or browser tab. The examining attorney "may use free image search and analysis tools available online," and a suspect specimen draws a refusal plus a request for information that can ask where the image came from and for proof of sales.

AI images fall under the same rule. The USPTO's 2024 guidance on AI tools says "Particular care should be taken to avoid submitting any AI-generated specimens, which do not show actual use of the trademark in commerce" (89 FR 25609).

The USPTO also warns: "If you provide a specimen in your application that's fraudulent, your application can be sanctioned and terminated, or subject to reexamination or expungement if your trademark registers" (USPTO, recognizing common scams). Listed sanctions include terminating the application, barring a person from filing documents, and deactivating USPTO.gov accounts (USPTO, sanctions process).

Drawings: standard characters or special form

There are two kinds of drawing (37 CFR 2.52), and "The drawing must show only one mark." To register both your name in plain text and your logo, you file two applications.

A standard character drawing covers words, letters or numbers "without claim to any particular font style, size, or color," using Latin characters, Roman or Arabic numerals and common punctuation, with no design. The payoff: "A registrant is entitled to all depictions of a standard character mark regardless of the font style, size, or color" (TMEP 1207.01(c)(iii)). The USPTO "encourages the use of standard character drawings" (TMEP 807.04(b)).

A special form drawing is required for a design, for color, or for wording in a particular font style or size, and needs a written description of the mark. For electronic filings, the rule calls for a .jpg image at 300 to 350 dots per inch (37 CFR 2.53(c)), with little or no white space and no TM, SM or ® symbols (TMEP 807.05(c)).

With a standard character drawing, your specimen need not use the same font, size or color, unless the display changes the meaning or overall impression of the mark; then a special form drawing is required (TMEP 807.03(e)).

Color claims

A color drawing requires a claim that color is a feature of the mark, the color names, and where each color appears (37 CFR 2.52(b)(1)). Once you claim color, your specimens must show it (TMEP 904.02(c)(ii)).

A black-and-white special form drawing with no color claim "is presumed to contemplate the use of the mark in any color, without limitation" (TMEP 807.14(e)(i)). File a color drawing without a claim and the examining attorney will require one, or, if color is not a material part of the mark, may let you switch to black and white (TMEP 807.07(b)). Decide before filing whether color is part of what you want to own.

The drawing must match the specimen

In a use-based application, the drawing "must be a substantially exact representation of the mark as used" (37 CFR 2.51(a)). When they differ, the examining attorney asks whether changing the drawing would be a material alteration, a change big enough to make it a different mark. If not, you can amend the drawing or file a new specimen; if so, only a new specimen fixes it (TMEP 807.12).

• BOOKCHOICE on the drawing and BOOK CHOICE on the specimen do not match, but amending the drawing would not be material. BookChoice on the specimen would match (TMEP 807.12(e)).
• Other wording or a house mark beside your mark on the specimen is not automatically a problem if your mark makes "a separate and distinct commercial impression" (TMEP 807.12(d)).
• TM, ®, net weight and similar matter stay off the drawing.

What you can change after filing

You can amend the drawing only if your specimen supports it and the change "does not materially alter the mark" (37 CFR 2.72). The test is whether the new form creates "the impression of being essentially the same mark" (TMEP 807.14). Generally:

• Adding an element that would require a new search is material.
• Deleting the generic name of the goods usually is not; neither is punctuation.
• Changing the color of lettering in a word mark usually is not; changing any color in a mark made only of color always is.
• The mark in a Madrid (Section 66(a)) application generally cannot be amended at all (TMEP 807.13(b)).

The same limit applies after registration (37 CFR 2.173(d)). Your Section 8 specimen must show a mark "essentially the same as the mark that appears in the registration," though "mere changes in background or styling, or modernization, are not ordinarily considered to be material changes" (TMEP 1604.13). A substantial rebrand generally needs a new application.

How to respond to a specimen refusal

You have three months from the Office Action's issue date, with one three-month extension for $125; Madrid applications get six months and no extension (37 CFR 2.62). Refusals 101 covers Office Actions generally. The main options (USPTO, specimens):

1. File a substitute specimen with a verified statement, a declaration signed with a warning that false statements are punishable (37 CFR 2.20). Under 37 CFR 2.59, the substitute must have been in use at least as early as the filing date (use-based applications), before you filed the amendment to allege use, or before the Statement of Use deadline expired. If its dates of use differ, amend those too (TMEP 904.05).
2. Change the basis to intent to use if, in a use-based application, you cannot show a qualifying specimen in use by the filing date. You will need a specimen and another fee before registration.
3. Explain or supplement the original, for example by giving a web page's URL and access date in a verified statement.

A request for information about a possible mockup, a failure-to-function refusal, or a drawing that cannot be amended is a good time to talk to a trademark attorney. Applicants domiciled outside the U.S. must be represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney (37 CFR 2.11(a)).

Before you file

Photograph the real product, label, packaging, sign or live web page as customers see it, and compare it with your drawing letter by letter and color by color. Do not add the mark to an image digitally, build a mockup, or generate the image with AI.

After you file, GleanMark watches your marks and alerts you to new filings and status changes. Alerts for status changes and Office Actions usually arrive by the next business day, so you can start on a response early.