UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
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SERIAL NO: 76/653718
APPLICANT: Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
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CORRESPONDENT ADDRESS:
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Commissioner for Trademarks P.O. Box 1451 Alexandria, VA 22313-1451
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MARK: GIF2
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CORRESPONDENT’S REFERENCE/DOCKET NO: N/A
CORRESPONDENT EMAIL ADDRESS: |
Please provide in all correspondence:
1. Filing date, serial number, mark and applicant's name. 2. Date of this Office Action. 3. Examining Attorney's name and Law Office number. 4. Your telephone number and e-mail address.
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PRIORITY ACTION
RESPONSE TIME LIMIT: To avoid abandonment, the Office must receive a proper response to this Office action within six-months of the mailing or e-mailing date. If applicant responds to the issues below within two months of the above mailing or e-mailing date, this case will be given priority handling. TMEP §708.01.
MAILING/E-MAILING DATE INFORMATION: If the mailing or e-mailing date of this Office action does not appear above, this information can be obtained by visiting the USPTO website at http://tarr.gov.uspto.report/, inserting the application serial number, and viewing the prosecution history for the mailing date of the most recently issued Office communication.
OFFICE RECORDS SEARCH: The Office records have been searched and no similar registered or pending mark has been found that would bar registration under Trademark Act Section 2(d), 15 U.S.C. §1052(d). TMEP §704.02.
QUESTIONS: Please contact the assigned trademark examining attorney with any questions.
Serial Number 76/653718
The following were discussed in communication with Jiff Gaffney on May 11, 2006. Applicant must respond to each refusal and/or requirement raised below.
The wording used to describe the services needs clarification because as written it is indefinite.
Applicant may adopt the following identification of services, if accurate. TMEP §1402.01.
Financial services, namely, annuity underwriting featuring a guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit for the contract holder and their spouse in connection with an annuity product
Please note that, while an application may be amended to clarify or limit the identifications, additions to the identifications are not permitted. 37 C.F.R. §2.71(a); TMEP §1402.06. Therefore, the applicant may not amend to include any services that are not within the scope of the services recited in the present identification.
For assistance with identifying goods and/or services in trademark applications, please see the online searchable Manual of Acceptable Identifications of Goods and Services at http://tess2.gov.uspto.report/netahtml/tidm.html.
/Dawn Han/
Trademark Examining Attorney
Law Office 107
(571) 272-9432
dawn.han@uspto.gov
HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS OFFICE ACTION:
· ONLINE RESPONSE: You may respond using the Office’s Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) Response to Office action form available on our website at http://www.gov.uspto.report/teas/index.html. If the Office action issued via e-mail, you must wait 72 hours after receipt of the Office action to respond via TEAS. NOTE: Do not respond by e-mail. THE USPTO WILL NOT ACCEPT AN E-MAILED RESPONSE.
· REGULAR MAIL RESPONSE: To respond by regular mail, your response should be sent to the mailing return address above, and include the serial number, law office number, and examining attorney’s name. NOTE: The filing date of the response will be the date of receipt in the Office, not the postmarked date. To ensure your response is timely, use a certificate of mailing. 37 C.F.R. §2.197.
STATUS OF APPLICATION: To check the status of your application, visit the Office’s Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) system at http://tarr.uspto.gov.
VIEW APPLICATION DOCUMENTS ONLINE: Documents in the electronic file for pending applications can be viewed and downloaded online at http://portal.gov.uspto.report/external/portal/tow.
GENERAL TRADEMARK INFORMATION: For general information about trademarks, please visit the Office’s website at http://www.gov.uspto.report/main/trademarks.htm