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What is a "digitally altered" specimen refusal?

Senior Trademark Attorney

A digitally altered specimen refusal is issued when the USPTO examiner suspects the submitted specimen has been digitally created or manipulated rather than showing actual commercial use of the mark. The purpose of a specimen is to demonstrate that the mark is genuinely used in connection with real goods or services in commerce; a digitally altered image cannot prove this.

The most common triggers are: a product image where the trademark appears to have been added in post-production, labels or packaging that look digitally composed rather than photographed, and mockup images created to show what a product would look like rather than what it actually looks like.

The resolution is to submit a real, unaltered photograph of the actual goods bearing the mark, or an unaltered screenshot of the actual website or marketplace listing.

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