A company's use of their brand often extends to several categories of goods or services and, in turn, a company's trade mark filings for such brand typically cover the range of products and services that the company offers. Thus, when a company enters into negotiations to sell part of its business to a third party, namely, selling rights in and to the company's trade mark in connection with certain goods or services while retaining the rights in the mark for other goods and services, the USPTO provides procedures for effecting the associated assignment of rights. These procedures differ depending on the status of the trade mark filing at issue – specifically whether it is a pending application or an issued registration.
