Offc Action Outgoing

TO AVOID ABANDONMENT OF APPLICANT’S TRADEMARK APPLICATION, THE USPTO MUST RECEIVE APPLICANT’S COMPLETE RESPONSE TO THIS LETTER WITHIN 6 MONTHS OF THE ISSUE/MAILING DATE BELOW.

ISSUE/MAILING DATE:

The examining attorney issued an Examiner’s Amendment for this application on November 1, 2011, and subsequently approved the application for publication. However, an Official Gazette query has been issued concerning the wording “Manual and hydraulic stands for handling rigid non-metal pipe”, in Class 19. Please see the amended requirement for an acceptable identification of goods below and the discussion therewith. The examining attorney regrets the inconvenience.

Classification and Identification of Goods

PARTIAL REQUIREMENT

Per the Examiner’s Amendment with counsel, the identification of goods in Class 19 was amended to “Manual and hydraulic stands for handling rigid non-metal pipe”. Further guidance from the Office has indicated that hydraulic stands are generally proper in Class 7, while manually operated stands are properly classified by the purpose of the goods. The wording as presently written is indefinite because it could identify goods classified in more than one class. Since these are finished goods the nature and purpose/function of the goods must be clarified in order to ensure that they are properly classified. Finally, the wording “handling” in the identification is overly vague in describing the purpose or function of the goods. The examining attorney believes that International Class 8 is the proper class for the manually operated goods as the nature of the goods appears to be sophisticated hand tools. For this class, the examining attorney has described the goods as “hand-operated apparatuses” instead of the “stands” language, but has offered a more narrowly defined description of the purpose of the goods. The examining attorney has presented revised suggestions below, which may be adopted, if accurate.

Class 7: “Fusion machines for plastic pipe and parts therefor; tube finning machines and parts therefor; electric heater machines for fusing plastic pipe; facing machines for plastic pipe; hydraulic stands for lifting, holding, and positioning rigid non-metal pipe”

Class 8: “Pipe socket tooling kits and parts therefor, comprising tubing shears, cutters, chamfer tools, depth gauges, screwdrivers, cold ring tools, and hand held pipe heaters; hand-operated apparatuses used for lifting, holding, and positioning rigid non-metal pipe”

An applicant may amend an identification of goods and services only to clarify or limit the goods and 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 et seq.

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.

Failure to Respond – Advisory

If applicant does not respond to this Office action within the six-month period for response, International Class 19 will be deleted from the application. The application will then proceed with the present identification of goods in International Classes 7, 8 and 9 only. See 37 C.F.R. §2.65(a); TMEP §718.02(a).

Assistance

If applicant has questions regarding this Office action, please telephone or e-mail the assigned trademark examining attorney. All relevant e-mail communications will be placed in the official application record; however, an e-mail communication will not be accepted as a response to this Office action and will not extend the deadline for filing a proper response. See 37 C.F.R. §2.191; TMEP §§304.01-.02, 709.04-.05. Further, although the trademark examining attorney may provide additional explanation pertaining to the refusal(s) and/or requirement(s) in this Office action, the trademark examining attorney may not provide legal advice or statements about applicant’s rights. See TMEP §§705.02, 709.06.

/Jordan A. Baker/

Trademark Examining Attorney

Law Office 102

571-272-8844

jordan.baker@uspto.gov

TO RESPOND TO THIS LETTER: Go to http://www.gov.uspto.report/trademarks/teas/response_forms.jsp. Please wait 48-72 hours from the issue/mailing date before using TEAS, to allow for necessary system updates of the application. For technical assistance with online forms, e-mail TEAS@uspto.gov. For questions about the Office action itself, please contact the assigned trademark examining attorney. E-mail communications will not be accepted as responses to Office actions; therefore, do not respond to this Office action by e-mail.

All informal e-mail communications relevant to this application will be placed in the official application record.

WHO MUST SIGN THE RESPONSE: It must be personally signed by an individual applicant or someone with legal authority to bind an applicant (i.e., a corporate officer, a general partner, all joint applicants). If an applicant is represented by an attorney, the attorney must sign the response.

PERIODICALLY CHECK THE STATUS OF THE APPLICATION: To ensure that applicant does not miss crucial deadlines or official notices, check the status of the application every three to four months using Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) at http://tarr.gov.uspto.report/. Please keep a copy of the complete TARR screen. If TARR shows no change for more than six months, call 1-800-786-9199. For more information on checking status, see http://www.gov.uspto.report/trademarks/process/status/.

TO UPDATE CORRESPONDENCE/E-MAIL ADDRESS: Use the TEAS form at http://www.gov.uspto.report/teas/eTEASpageE.htm.