Intellectual Property Abbreviations
50 abbreviations · part of Legal Abbreviations
Abbreviations from patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret practice, including the offices that grant rights (USPTO, EPO, WIPO), filing and prosecution terms (PCT, RCE, IDS), post-grant challenges (IPR, PGR) and licensing frameworks such as Creative Commons and FRAND. Patent and trademark prosecution has a dense shorthand of its own, used daily by examiners, patent agents and IP lawyers. Entries are general information, not legal advice.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| BRI | Broadest reasonable interpretation | Standard the USPTO uses to read patent claims during examination: claims receive their broadest reasonable meaning consistent with the specification, as a person of… |
| CBM | Covered business method review | Transitional PTAB proceeding, available from 2012 to 2020, that let parties sued on financial-services business method patents challenge them on any ground of invalidity. |
| CC | Creative Commons | Nonprofit organization and set of free public copyright licenses that let creators permit reuse of their work under chosen conditions, such as attribution or… |
| CC BY | Creative Commons Attribution License | Most permissive Creative Commons license: others may copy, adapt and use the work, even commercially, provided they credit the creator, link to the license and indicate… |
| CC0 | Creative Commons Zero | Public-domain dedication by which a creator waives all copyright and related rights in a work as far as the law allows. |
| CCB | Copyright Claims Board | Voluntary small-claims tribunal within the US Copyright Office that resolves copyright infringement claims worth up to $30,000 in total, conducted largely online and… |
| CIP | Continuation-in-part | US patent application that repeats a substantial portion of an earlier pending application and adds new subject matter. |
| CNIPA | China National Intellectual Property Administration | Chinese government agency that examines and grants patents and registers trademarks, receiving more patent applications than any other office in the world. |
| Copr. | Copyright | Abbreviation expressly allowed by US copyright law in a copyright notice, as an alternative to the word "Copyright" or the circle-C symbol. |
| DOE | Doctrine of equivalents | Patent law doctrine under which a product or process that does not literally infringe a claim can still infringe if it performs substantially the same function in… |
| EPC | European Patent Convention | Multilateral treaty, signed in Munich in 1973, that created the European Patent Organisation and a single procedure for granting European patents. |
| EPO | European Patent Office | Executive body of the European Patent Organisation, based in Munich with branches in The Hague, Berlin, Vienna and Brussels, that examines and grants European patents… |
| EUIPO | European Union Intellectual Property Office | EU agency in Alicante, Spain, that registers EU trade marks and EU designs, giving unitary protection across all member states with a single filing. |
| FRAND | Fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory | Licensing commitment that owners of standard-essential patents give to standard-setting organizations such as ETSI and IEEE, promising to license their patents to… |
| FTO | Freedom to operate | Analysis of whether a product, process or service can be made, used or sold without infringing others' valid intellectual property rights, usually patents, in specific… |
| IDS | Information disclosure statement | Submission to the USPTO listing patents, publications and other information known to the applicant that may be material to patentability. |
| IP | Intellectual property | Legal rights in creations of the mind, chiefly patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, which give owners exclusive control over inventions, creative works… |
| IPR | Intellectual property rights | Collective term for the legal rights granted over intellectual property, such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs and plant varieties, used… |
| ITU | Intent-to-use application | US trademark application filed before a mark is used in commerce, based on a bona fide intention to use it, under section 1(b) of the Lanham Act. |
| MPEP | Manual of Patent Examining Procedure | USPTO publication setting out the practices and procedures patent examiners follow, interpreting statutes, regulations and court decisions on topics from formalities to… |
| NPE | Non-practicing entity | Patent owner that does not make products or provide services using its patents but earns revenue by licensing and enforcing them, often through litigation. |
| OA | Office action | Official letter from a patent examiner or trademark examining attorney explaining why an application cannot yet be allowed, such as rejections over prior art or formal… |
| ODP | Obviousness-type double patenting | Court-made doctrine that bars a patent owner from obtaining claims in a second patent that are not patentably distinct from claims in its earlier patent, preventing… |
| PCT | Patent Cooperation Treaty | International treaty administered by WIPO that lets an applicant file one international patent application to seek protection in more than 150 member countries. |
| PGR | Post-grant review | Patent Office proceeding at the PTAB in which a third party can challenge a newly issued patent on any ground of invalidity, including ineligible subject matter and… |
| PHOSITA | Person having ordinary skill in the art | Hypothetical person used in patent law to judge obviousness and the adequacy of a patent's disclosure: someone with ordinary knowledge and skill in the relevant… |
| PPA | Provisional patent application | Lower-cost US patent filing that establishes an early priority date without formal claims or examination, giving the applicant 12 months to file a non-provisional… |
| PPH | Patent Prosecution Highway | Arrangements among patent offices that let an applicant whose claims were found allowable by one office request accelerated examination of corresponding claims at… |
| PRO | Performing rights organization | Organization that licenses the public performance of musical works on behalf of songwriters and music publishers and distributes the royalties it collects. |
| PTA | Patent term adjustment | Extension of a US patent's term to compensate for USPTO delays during examination, such as failing to issue a first office action within 14 months of filing. |
| PTE | Patent term extension | Extension of up to five years for a US patent covering a drug, medical device or other product whose commercial marketing was delayed by FDA regulatory review. |
| RCE | Request for continued examination | US patent filing that reopens prosecution after a final rejection or allowance, by paying a fee and submitting amendments, arguments or new references, so the examiner… |
| SEP | Standard-essential patent | Patent claiming an invention that must be used to comply with a technical standard, such as 4G and 5G cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or video compression. |
| SM | Service mark | Mark used to identify and distinguish the source of services rather than goods, such as those of a bank, airline, restaurant chain or consulting firm. |
| SNQ | Substantial new question of patentability | Threshold the USPTO must find before ordering ex parte reexamination of an issued patent: earlier patents or printed publications must raise a question of patentability… |
| SOU | Statement of use | Filing that completes an intent-to-use trademark application by declaring that the mark is now in use in commerce and submitting a specimen showing that use. |
| SPC | Supplementary protection certificate | Right available in the EU, the UK and some other countries that extends protection for a patented medicine or plant protection product by up to five years, compensating… |
| TD | Terminal disclaimer | Statement filed in a US patent or application disclaiming any part of the patent term that would extend beyond the expiration of a related patent, usually to overcome a… |
| TEAS | Trademark Electronic Application System | USPTO's online system for filing trademark applications and later documents, such as statements of use, maintenance filings and responses to office actions. |
| TM | Trademark | Word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, sound or combination that identifies the source of goods and distinguishes them from those of others. |
| TMEP | Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure | USPTO publication guiding trademark examining attorneys and applicants on the practices for registering trademarks, including descriptiveness refusals, likelihood of… |
| TRIPS | Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights | World Trade Organization agreement, in effect since 1995, that sets minimum standards for copyright, trademarks, patents, geographical indications, industrial designs… |
| TTAB | Trademark Trial and Appeal Board | Administrative tribunal of the USPTO that decides appeals from trademark examiners' refusals and contested cases such as oppositions to pending applications and… |
| UDRP | Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy | Procedure adopted by ICANN in 1999 that lets trademark owners challenge abusive domain name registrations, known as cybersquatting, through quick online proceedings… |
| UKIPO | United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office | UK government body responsible for granting patents, registering trade marks and designs, and developing copyright policy. |
| UPC | Unified Patent Court | International court shared by participating EU member states that hears infringement and revocation actions on European patents and unitary patents, issuing single… |
| USCO | United States Copyright Office | Federal agency within the Library of Congress that registers copyright claims, records transfers and other documents, and advises Congress on copyright policy. |
| USPTO | United States Patent and Trademark Office | Federal agency within the Department of Commerce that examines and grants patents and registers trademarks. |
| WIPO | World Intellectual Property Organization | United Nations specialized agency in Geneva that administers the main international IP treaties, including the PCT, the Madrid System for trademarks and the Hague… |
| WO | WIPO international publication prefix | Prefix for international patent applications published by WIPO under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, as in WO 2020/123456. |