The USPTO’s Change Address or Representation form, known as the CAR form, is a free electronic filing you submit through the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) to update the mailing address, email, phone number, domicile, or attorney of record tied to a pending trademark application or an existing registration. If you have your serial or registration numbers and a verified USPTO.gov account ready, the filing takes about ten minutes.
What the Form Covers
The CAR form handles three kinds of changes to your trademark records:
- The owner’s contact information, including mailing address, domicile address, email, and phone number.
- Attorney representation, whether you’re appointing a new attorney, revoking a current attorney’s authority, or updating an attorney’s contact details.
- Domestic representative information for foreign-domiciled owners.
Federal regulations require you to keep your correspondence address current and file a change request promptly when anything shifts.1eCFR. 37 CFR 2.18 – Correspondence, With Whom Held The USPTO sends every formal communication (office actions, notices of allowance, maintenance reminders) to the correspondence address on file. When you have an attorney, that attorney’s email is the correspondence address; when you’re unrepresented, your own email is used.2United States Patent and Trademark Office. Correspondence and Attorney/Domestic Representative Forms
One boundary to note up front: the CAR form is what the owner uses to revoke an attorney. If an attorney wants to withdraw from representing a client, that’s a different form entirely. More on that distinction below.
Why Filing Promptly Matters
Missing a USPTO deadline because mail went to an old address can abandon your application. You can claim once that you didn’t receive a particular office action, but if you miss the deadline a second time, the application goes abandoned again and you cannot claim non-receipt again. Your only options at that point are filing a new application or petitioning to revive.3United States Patent and Trademark Office. Reviving an Abandoned Application Filing a CAR form the moment something changes costs nothing.
Set Up a Verified USPTO.gov Account First
You need a verified USPTO.gov account before you can file. The USPTO requires identity verification for anyone who files or edits data in trademark forms.4United States Patent and Trademark Office. Identity Verification for Trademark Filers Verification is one-time, but build in extra time if you haven’t done it before.
Two paths are available. Online verification through ID.me requires a camera-equipped device and a government-issued photo ID; you either complete a self-service process that requires a selfie or connect with a video chat agent to skip the biometric step. The paper alternative involves a form from USPTO.gov, two forms of government ID presented to a notary public, and mailing the notarized original to the Commissioner for Trademarks in Alexandria, Virginia. Paper verification takes two to three weeks to process.4United States Patent and Trademark Office. Identity Verification for Trademark Filers
Two exceptions exist. If the USPTO already verified your identity through the patent application process, you don’t need to verify again. And if you’re a trademark owner represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney, you don’t currently need to verify your identity just to electronically sign forms your attorney sends. You will need verification if the representation ends or you want to appoint a new attorney.4United States Patent and Trademark Office. Identity Verification for Trademark Filers
What to Gather Before Opening the Form
Have these ready:
- Your serial number (for pending applications) or registration number (for registered marks). Look them up at tsdr.uspto.gov if you don’t have them handy.5United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Status and Document Retrieval
- The updated street address, city, state, zip code, email, and phone number for whoever is changing.
- If you’re appointing counsel: the attorney’s full legal name, postal address, email, state of admission, and bar number.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. Using the TEAS Attorney Withdrawal Form and the TEAS Change Address or Representation Form
If you’re updating the same information across many marks at once, the CAR form accepts up to 300 serial or registration numbers in a single submission, entered with spaces and no punctuation.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. TEAS Change Address or Representation Form
Watch the Domicile vs. Mailing Address Distinction
Every trademark applicant and registrant must provide a domicile address, meaning the place where an individual permanently resides or where an entity’s senior executives direct and control operations. A P.O. Box usually doesn’t qualify.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Rule Requires Domicile Address for All Filers
Here’s the privacy detail most filers miss: the domicile field is not publicly viewable, but the mailing address field is. If you enter the same address in both, that address becomes public. To keep your home address private, put an office or P.O. Box in the mailing address field and your actual residence in the dedicated domicile field. Don’t type your domicile into any other field on the form, because information entered elsewhere may be publicly viewable.9United States Patent and Trademark Office. Personal Information in Trademark Records
Filling Out the Form
Access the form through the correspondence and attorney forms page on USPTO.gov, which takes you into TEAS.2United States Patent and Trademark Office. Correspondence and Attorney/Domestic Representative Forms Log in with your verified USPTO.gov account, then work through the sequence:
Enter your serial or registration numbers. The system pulls up existing records so you can confirm you’re editing the right marks. For batch updates, list up to 300 numbers separated by spaces.
Select your role. Choose whether you’re filing as the trademark owner or as the attorney of record. This selection controls which fields appear and which changes you’re authorized to make. Owners can update their own contact information, appoint or revoke attorneys, and manage domestic representative details. Attorneys can update their own information, update the owner’s information, or replace themselves with another already-appointed attorney.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. TEAS Change Address or Representation Form
Select the type of update. Radio buttons let you specify what’s changing (address update, attorney appointment, revocation, and so on). Answer each yes/no question that follows. Fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.
Enter the new information. Fill in the updated address, email, phone, or attorney details. The email you provide matters, because the USPTO uses it for all formal notices. Use the Continue buttons to move through the pages.
Signing and Submitting
TEAS offers three signature methods. You can sign directly in the browser by typing any combination of alphanumeric characters between two forward slashes, such as /Jane Smith/. You can have the system email a signing link to a second party, who applies the signature through the browser without downloading anything. Or you can use a traditional handwritten pen-and-ink signature.10United States Patent and Trademark Office. TEAS FAQs
Review everything before submitting. There is no filing fee for the CAR form.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. Using the TEAS Attorney Withdrawal Form and the TEAS Change Address or Representation Form Click Submit to send it.
Revoking an Attorney vs. Attorney Withdrawal
These are two separate actions on two separate forms, and confusing them is common.
Revocation is the owner’s action. The owner uses the CAR form to revoke a previously appointed attorney’s authority. The owner (or someone authorized to legally bind the entity, such as a corporate officer) must sign. The current attorney or new attorney cannot sign the revocation. In-house counsel cannot sign either, unless they’re also authorized to legally bind the applicant or registrant. If the trademark record shows a recognized attorney, the form asks whether the owner wants to revoke that attorney’s authority before letting you make other updates.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. Using the TEAS Attorney Withdrawal Form and the TEAS Change Address or Representation Form
Withdrawal is the attorney’s action. An attorney who wants to stop representing a client files a separate Request for Withdrawal as Attorney of Record form, not the CAR form. The withdrawing attorney signs and must attest that they’ve taken steps to avoid prejudice to the client, including confirming the owner’s email is current for future USPTO communications. Approval by the Director is required, or in contested proceedings, a grant from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.11eCFR. 37 CFR 2.19 – Revocation or Withdrawal of Attorney
After You Submit
A confirmation screen appears in your browser immediately, and an email acknowledging receipt goes to the primary correspondence email address with a timestamp and summary of your changes.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. TEAS Change Address or Representation Form Save that email as your proof of filing.
New documents may not show up in TSDR right away.12United States Patent and Trademark Office. Checking the Status of a Trademark Application or Registration Check back at tsdr.uspto.gov after a few days by entering your serial or registration number, then look at the Correspondence and Attorney tabs within the record to confirm the changes posted.
Fixing a Mistake
If you entered wrong information on a CAR form, submit a new CAR form with the correct data. The new filing overwrites the previous entry.13United States Patent and Trademark Office. Correcting Errors in Applications and Registrations Errors in other parts of your trademark record (like the mark description or goods and services) require different forms, and the correct one depends on the stage of your application.
If You’re Foreign-Domiciled
If your domicile is outside the United States, you must be represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney for all trademark filings with the USPTO. This includes Canadian filers, and the requirement has been in effect since August 3, 2019.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Rule Requires Domicile Address for All Filers A foreign-domiciled owner cannot file a CAR form pro se. It must go through their appointed U.S. attorney. If your current attorney relationship ends, appointing a replacement is urgent because nothing else can be filed until new counsel is on record.