Offc Action Outgoing

The Office has withdrawn the application from publication due to an additional requirement that must be resolved by applicant. The examining attorney apologizes for any inconvenience or delay that may have been caused.

Identification of Goods and/or Services Amendment Requirement

The Office requires a degree of particularity necessary to identify clearly goods and/or services covered by a mark. See In re Omega SA, 494 F.3d 1362, 1365, 83 USPQ2d 1541, 1543-44 (Fed. Cir. 2007). Descriptions of goods and services in applications must be specific, explicit, clear and concise. TMEP §1402.01; see Cal. Spray-Chem. Corp. v. Osmose Wood Pres. Co. of Am., 102 USPQ 321, 322 (Comm’r Pats. 1954); In re Cardinal Labs., Inc., 149 USPQ 709, 711 (TTAB 1966).

Class 42:

"Providing an interactive website providing links to a mass community of others" is indefinite; website services are classified according to the subject matter of the website, so the applicant must specify the purpose or nature of the community to permit classification

Also, "providing an interactive website...featuring...in the field of psychology" is misclassified; psychology-related services are in Class 44; Please note that the website services related to behavioral sciences are acceptable as proposed.

Class 44:

"Information dissemination services, namely, retrieving and providing to the public printed and electronically disseminated articles pertaining to diagnosis and treatment in the fields of psychological and social sciences" is indefinite. "Social sciences" wouldn't be in 44. The rest could be in 38, 40, 41, or 42 depending on exactly what the applicant is doing. There does not appear to be any actual medical treatment nor any health information actually provided by applicant (which are typical Class 44 services).

For the applicant’s convenience, the Examining Attorney has highlighted suggested amendments and problem areas in bold type below. The applicant may adopt following wording, if accurate, because it is sufficiently definite and properly classified:

“Providing an interactive web site providing links to a mass community of others, namely, {specify, e.g., “providing an interactive web site providing links to a mass community of others featuring downloadable and non-downloadable information relating to research in the field of behavioral sciences.” Applicant should note the deletion of the term “and” clarifies the indefinite issue}; computer services, namely, providing search engines for obtaining data from journals and other publications on a global computer network in the fields of psychological and social sciences; hosting an on-line community web site featuring information in the fields of the psychological and behavioral sciences; computer services, namely, providing an on-line database related to research in the fields of psychological and social sciences,” in International Class 42;

“Computer services, namely, providing an on-line database related to diagnosis and treatment in the fields of psychological and social sciences; providing an interactive web site providing links to a mass community of others and featuring information relating to diagnosis and treatment in the fields of psychology and the behavioral sciences; information dissemination services, namely, retrieving and providing to the public printed and electronically disseminated articles pertaining to diagnosis and treatment in the fields of psychological and social sciences, namely, {specify service by commercial name and reclassify accordingly, or just delete this wording}; computer services, namely, providing an on-line database in the fields of diagnosis and treatment in the psychological and behavioral sciences; providing an interactive web site providing links to a mass community of others and featuring information relating to diagnosis and treatment in the fields of psychology and the behavioral sciences; providing an interactive web site providing links to a mass community of others featuring downloadable and non-downloadable information relating to research in the field of psychology,” in International Class 44.

Applicant should note all other goods and services are acceptable as proposed.

See TMEP §1402.01.

Identifications of goods and/or services can be amended only to clarify or limit the goods and/or services; adding to or broadening the scope of the goods and/or services is not permitted. 37 C.F.R. §2.71(a); see TMEP §§1402.06 et seq., 1402.07. Therefore, applicant may not amend the identification to include goods and/or services that are not within the scope of the goods and/or services set forth in the present identification.

For assistance with identifying and classifying 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. See TMEP §1402.04.

Assistance

If applicant has questions about its application or needs assistance in responding to this Office action, please telephone the assigned trademark examining attorney.

/James W. Stein/

Trademark Examining Attorney

Law Office 107

Phone No. (571) 272-3056

RESPOND TO THIS ACTION: Applicant should file a response to this Office action online using the form at http://www.gov.uspto.report/teas/eTEASpageD.htm, waiting 48-72 hours if applicant received notification of the Office action via e-mail. For technical assistance with the form, please e-mail TEAS@uspto.gov. For questions about the Office action itself, please contact the assigned examining attorney. Do not respond to this Office action by e-mail; the USPTO does not accept e-mailed responses.

If responding by paper mail, please include the following information: the application serial number, the mark, the filing date and the name, title/position, telephone number and e-mail address of the person signing the response. Please use the following address: Commissioner for Trademarks, P.O. Box 1451, Alexandria, VA 22313-1451.

STATUS CHECK: Check the status of the application at least once every six months from the initial filing date using the USPTO Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) online system at http://tarr.uspto.gov. When conducting an online status check, print and maintain a copy of the complete TARR screen. If the status of your application has not changed for more than six months, please contact the assigned examining attorney.