Offc Action Outgoing

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

 

 

 

OFFICE ACTION

 

TO AVOID ABANDONMENT, WE MUST RECEIVE A PROPER RESPONSE TO THIS OFFICE ACTION WITHIN 6 MONTHS OF OUR MAILING OR E-MAILING DATE. 

 

 

Serial Number  76/567171

 

The assigned examining attorney has reviewed the referenced application and determined the following.

 

Prior Pending Application.

 

The examining attorney also encloses information regarding pending Application Serial No. 76300411.  The filing date of the referenced applications precedes the applicant's filing date.  There may be a likelihood of confusion between the marks under Trademark Act Section 2(d), 15 U.S.C. Section 1052(d).  If the referenced application matures into a registration, the examining attorney may refuse registration in this case under Section 2(d).  37 C.F.R. Section 2.83; Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure Section 1208.01, (3rd Edition January 2002).

 

If the applicant believes that there is no potential conflict between this application and the earlier-filed application, the applicant may present arguments relevant to the issue in its response or later in a request to remove the application from suspension.  The election to file or not to file such a request or to even respond to the prior pending application at this time in no way limits the applicant's right to address this issue at a later point.

Standard Character Claim Omitted.

 

In a standard character drawing, the mark on the drawing consists of only words, letters or numbers, but does not include any designs or claims as to particular font style, size, or color.  A registration for a mark using a standard character drawing affords protection not only for the standard character version of the mark, but for any possible renderings of the mark, as long as those renderings do not contain any design elements; i.e., a registered standard character drawing of the mark gives protection for display on the specimens in any lettering style.  A special-form drawing, on the other hand, shows the mark in stylized letters and/or with a design element and provides protection for only that specific rendering.  37 C.F.R. §2.52; Exam Guide 01-03, section I; See TMEP §§807.06 et seq. and TMEP §807.07 et seq.

 

In this application, the mark appears to be standard character drawing without any claim as to a standard character drawing.

 

The requirements for a standard character drawing submitted on paper are as follows:

 

·        a sheet of nonshiny white paper that is separate from the application and is 8 to 8.5 inches wide by 11 to 11.69 inches long (or 20.3 to 21.6 cm. wide and 27.9 to 29.7cm. long);

 

·         one of the shorter sides of the sheet should be regarded as its top edge;

 

·        include the caption “DRAWING PAGE” at the top of the drawing beginning one inch (2.5 cm.) from the top edge;

 

·        depict the mark in black print;

 

·        depict all letters and words in the mark in Latin characters;

 

·        depict all numerals in the mark in Roman or Arabic numerals; and

 

·        the mark includes only common punctuation or diacritical marks as shown on the Office’s official table of acceptable standard characters.

 

37 C.F.R. §§2.52(a) and 2.54; See TMEP §§807.01(a), 807.01(b), 807.01(c) and 807.06.

 

In the alternative, the requirements for a standard character drawing submitted through TEAS are as follows:

 

·        depict the mark in black print;

 

·        depict all letters and words in the mark in Latin characters;

 

·        depict all numerals in the mark in Roman or Arabic numerals; and

 

·        the mark includes only common punctuation or diacritical marks as shown on the Office’s official table of acceptable standard characters.

 

37 C.F.R. §§2.52(a).

 

The standard character drawing may be entered into the appropriate text field on the TEAS form or attached as a digitized image.  If applicant attaches a digitized image, then the image must be in .jpg format, formatted at no less than 300 and no more than 350 dots per inch; and no smaller in any direction than 250 pixels and no larger in any direction than 944 pixels.  37 C.F.R. §2.53(c).

 

Regardless of the submission method, the applicant must submit the following standard character claim:

 

The mark is presented in standard character format without claim to any particular font style, size, or color.”  37 C.F.R. §2.52(a).

 

Citizenship Omitted.

 

The applicant must indicate his national citizenship for the record.  Trademark Act Section 1, 15 U.S.C. Section 1051; 37 C.F.R. Section 2.32(a)(3)(i); TMEP section 802.04.  Simply stating that the applicant is a “U.S. individual” only implies that the applicant is a citizen of the United States. 

 

Responding to this Office Action.

 

No set form is required for response to this Office action.  The applicant must respond to each point raised.  The applicant should simply set forth the required changes or statements and request that the Office enter them.  The applicant must sign the response.  In addition to the identifying information required at the beginning of this letter, the applicant should provide a telephone number to speed up further processing.

 

In all correspondence to the Patent and Trademark Office, the applicant should list the name and law office of the examining attorney, the serial number of this application, the mailing date of this Office action, and the applicant's telephone number.

 

If the applicant has any questions or needs assistance in responding to this Office Action, please telephone the assigned examining attorney.          

 

Change in USPTO Trademark Contact Information

 

The USPTO Trademark Operations will be moving to the new Alexandria, Virginia campus in October and November 2004.  During that time, you are strongly encouraged to communicate with the USPTO through the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) which can be found at www.uspto.gov <http://www.uspto.gov> .

 

Effective October 4, 2004, all Trademark-related paper mail must be sent to:

 

                        Commissioner for Trademarks

                        P.O. Box 1451

                        Alexandria, VA  22313-1451

 

My Law Office will move on October 28, 2004.  To reach me by phone after that date call (571) 272-9150. 

 

To submit a fax response to this Office action after that date, send your response to the Law Office fax number, namely (571) 273-9105.

 

/John D. Dalier/

Trademark Examining Attorney

Law Office 105

(703) 308-9105, ext. 131

john.dalier@uspto.gov

 

 

 

How to respond to this Office Action:

 

To respond formally using the Office’s Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS), visit http://www.gov.uspto.report/teas/index.html and follow the instructions.

 

To respond formally via regular mail, your response should be sent to the mailing Return Address listed above and include the serial number, law office and examining attorney’s name on the upper right corner of each page of your response.

 

To check the status of your application at any time, visit the Office’s Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) system at http://tarr.gov.uspto.report/

 

For general and other useful information about trademarks, you are encouraged to visit the Office’s web site at http://www.gov.uspto.report/main/trademarks.htm

 

FOR INQUIRIES OR QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS OFFICE ACTION, PLEASE CONTACT THE ASSIGNED EXAMINING ATTORNEY.