Legal Definitions - Official Gazette

The Official Gazette is a publication by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that comes out weekly. It has two versions: one for patents and one for trademarks.

The patent version of the Official Gazette publishes summaries of new patents that have been granted. This means that when someone invents something new and gets a patent for it, a summary of their invention will be published in the patent version of the Official Gazette.

The trademark version of the Official Gazette publishes samples of trademarks that people want to register. A trademark is a symbol or word that a company uses to identify itself or its products. When someone wants to register a trademark, they have to submit a sample of it to the trademark version of the Official Gazette.

For example, if a company called "ABC Widgets" wants to register a trademark for their logo, they would submit a sample of the logo to the trademark version of the Official Gazette. If the trademark is approved, it will be published in the Official Gazette.

The Official Gazette is important because it helps people keep track of new patents and trademarks that are being registered. This can be useful for inventors and businesses who want to make sure that their ideas are original and not already patented or trademarked by someone else.