Trademark classification goes agentic with USPTO’s announcement of “Class ACT” assistant

ALEXANDRIA, VA-Today, America's Branding Agency, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), announced the release of a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence (AI) agent that handles some of the most time-consuming elements of trademark application pre-processing. The new Trademark Classification Agentic Codification Tool, or "Class ACT," can immediately assign international classes to unclassified applications, as well as the design search codes and pseudo marks that make these records searchable. This speed will enhance searches performed by examining attorneys and practitioners like never before.

"Classification and design search coding takes five months? How about five minutes or even five seconds," said USPTO Director John A. Squires. "We're providing specific, task-directed AI agents, which can efficiently tackle the toughest, most information intensive aspect of pre-examination-often the slowest step to achieve a complete application."

"AI done right: faster results, higher quality, happier stakeholders. The Trademark Office is setting the standard," said Rob Hayes, Acting Chief AI and Data Officer. Mr. Hayes joined Mr. Squires from the private sector as a senior advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary from a senior post at X.

"Rob's invigorated all our operations across the office in such a short time, and I congratulate him and Acting Trademark Commissioner Dan Vavonese for cutting the Gordian Knot that slows applications from the outset. This is a giant step forward to empower our examiners to do what they do best: skilled examination and guidance for applicants to help get them where they need to go," said Director Squires.

Trademark applications with logos, designs, unconventional spelling, or no international class can make searching difficult. Historically, USPTO employees add design search codes, pseudo marks, and international classification to make finding these applications easier. However, the surge in trademark applications caused this process to take several months, affecting examination and our customers.

"Now, AI can provide this information immediately at a high level of accuracy," said Senior Legal Advisor Kathleen Cooney-Porter. While the information is still reviewed by humans at the USPTO, the benefits are available to examining attorneys and the public almost instantly.

"With the development and implementation of AI tools in our workflow, our employees can focus on applying their experienced judgment and reason to the substantive issues in examination, which will benefit our stakeholders," said Mr. Vavonese.

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