The Secretary of State’s office maintains registration and all updates of California state trademarks and service marks. This information is accessible via our California Trademark Search tool, which provides free PDF copies of imaged Trademark documents. Any documents yet to be imaged are available to the public upon request. General provisions governing trademarks and service marks are found in the Model State Trademark Law, California Business and Professions Code sections 14200 et seq.

Trademarks Online: Applications to file a Trademark or Service Mark registration can be submitted online through the California Secretary of State’s bizfile California portal, in person at the Sacramento office, or through the mail.  

Date received, which will establish priority for the application complying with applicable law, is determined in the following order: 

  1. Applications received online through our website, TMbizfile.sos.ca.gov, which will be labeled received at the actual time and date received;
  2. Applications received in person over the counter in Sacramento, which will be labeled received at the actual time and date received; and
  3. Applications received by mail, which will be labeled as received at 5:00 p.m. on the date received.

Whether you file online or on paper, please note the following:

  • The classification of goods and services are those adopted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and a single application for a trademark may include multiple classifications of goods and an application for a service mark may include multiple classifications of services. The fee is $70.00 per classification;
  • Applicants are required to state a declaration of accuracy that the material facts in the application are true. A willfully inaccurate statement is subject to a civil penalty of up to $10,000 to be enforced by a public prosecutor;
  • The applicant is required to state whether they previously sought to register the mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and, if registration was refused, to disclose the reasons why it was refused at the federal level.

The Trademark Unit is also responsible for the registration of various other filings, such as container brands, which could be a name, mark or device impressed or produced on a container (California Business & Professions Code section 14425), laundry marks (California Business & Professions Code section 14480), and the names of farms, ranches, estates, or villas (California Business & Professions Code section 14460).