UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
| SERIAL NO: 79/035728 APPLICANT: VKR Holding A/S | |
| CORRESPONDENT ADDRESS: | RETURN ADDRESS: Commissioner for Trademarks P.O. Box 1451 Alexandria, VA 22313-1451 |
| MARK: MODULINE | |
| 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. |
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.uspto.gov/, inserting the application serial number, and viewing the prosecution history for the mailing date of the most recently issued Office communication.
Serial Number 79/035728
INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION NO. 0916879.
This is a PROVISIONAL FULL REFUSAL of the trademark and/or service mark in the above-referenced U.S. application. 15 U.S.C. §1141h(c).
WHO IS PERMITTED TO RESPOND TO THIS PROVISIONAL FULL REFUSAL:
Applicant may respond directly to this provisional refusal Office action, or applicant’s attorney may respond on applicant’s behalf. However, the only attorneys who can practice before the USPTO in trademark matters are as follows:
(1) Attorneys in good standing with a bar of the highest court of any U.S. state, and
(2) Canadian attorneys who have applied for and received reciprocal recognition by the USPTO under 37 C.F.R. §10.14(c). Canadian attorneys can only represent Canadian applicants.
37 C.F.R. §10.14; TMEP §602.
Foreign attorneys are not permitted to practice before the USPTO, other than properly authorized Canadian attorneys. Preparing a paper, authorizing an amendment to an application, or submitting legal arguments in response to a requirement or refusal constitutes representation of a party in a trademark matter. A response signed by an unauthorized foreign attorney is considered an incomplete response. TMEP §§602, 602.03, 603.05.
THE APPLICATION HAS BEEN PROVISIONALLY REFUSED AS FOLLOWS:
The examining attorney has searched the Office records and has found no similar registered or pending mark which would bar registration under Trademark Act Section 2(d), 15 U.S.C. §1052(d). TMEP §704.02.
MEANING
The applicant must indicate whether MODULINE has any significance in the relevant trade or any meaning in a foreign language. 37 C.F.R. Section 2.61(b).
The applicant’s goods are: Parts and components of metal for indoor roller blinds; Parts and components not of metal for indoor roller blinds; Roller blinds and modular roller blind systems (for indoor use); parts and components of plastic for indoor roller blinds; Parts and components of textile for indoor roller blinds.
The applicant must specify the parts and components for each set of goods. The identification of goods and/or services contains parentheses. Generally, parentheses and brackets should not be used in identifications. TMEP §1402.12. Therefore, applicant must remove the parentheses from the identification of goods and/or services and incorporate the parenthetical information into the description.
Applicant must amend the identification of goods to specify the common commercial or generic name for the goods. If there is no common commercial or generic name for the product, then applicant must describe the product and intended consumer as well as its main purpose and intended uses. TMEP §1402.01.
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.uspto.gov/netahtml/tidm.html. The applicant may adopt the following identification, if accurate:
Parts and components of metal for indoor roller blinds, namely, metal brackets for use in the assembly of indoor roller blinds, in International Class 6;
Parts and components not of metal for indoor roller blinds, namely, non-metal, non-fabric valances for concealing the roller blind rod, in International Class 19;
Roller blinds; modular roller blind systems for indoor use, namely, indoor window roller blinds sold as a unit with curtain rods; parts and components of plastic for indoor roller blinds, namely, plastic adapter sleeve for vertical roller blinds to attach drapery to carrier, in International Class 20;
Parts and components of textile for indoor roller blinds, namely, textile fibers for use in the manufacture of indoor roller blinds of fabric, in International Class 22.
Please note that, while an application may be amended to clarify or limit the identification, additions to the identification are not permitted. 37 C.F.R. Section 2.71(a); TMEP section 1402.06. Therefore, the applicant may not amend to include any goods that are not within the scope of goods set forth in the present identification.
The international classification of goods and/or services in applications filed under Trademark Act Section 66(a) cannot be changed from the classification given to the goods and/or services by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization in the corresponding international registration. TMEP §§1401.03(d), 1401.04 and 1904.02(b).
In designating the legal entity of foreign applicants, acceptable terminology is not always the same as for United States applicants. The applicant has indicated that it is a Public Limited Company of Denmark. It is not clear that this is in fact a designation of legal entity in the particular country. The applicant must clarify what type of entity is applying and whether the term Public Limited Company is an acceptable entity designation under the laws of Denmark.
A statement of the accepted foreign designation (or an abbreviation therefor) of the legal entity of a foreign applicant is sufficient. The applicant may specify the legal entity by indicating the entity that would be its equivalent in the United States, but is not required to do so. TMEP Section 803.03(i).
If the applicant has any questions or needs assistance in responding to this Office action, please telephone the assigned examining attorney.
/Tanya L. Amos/
Trademark Examining Attorney
Law Office 113
571-272-9423 Telephone
571-273-9423 Fax
1-800-786-9199 Trademark Assistance
NOTICE OF NEW PROCEDURE FOR E-MAILED OFFICE ACTIONS: In late spring 2007, for any applicant who authorizes e-mail communication with the USPTO, the USPTO will no longer directly e-mail the actual Office action to the applicant. Instead, upon issuance of an Office action, the USPTO will e-mail the applicant a notice with a link/web address to access the Office action using Trademark Document Retrieval (TDR), which is located on the USPTO website at http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/tow. The Office action will not be attached to the e-mail notice. Upon receipt of the notice, the applicant can then view and print the actual Office action and any evidentiary attachments using the provided link/web address. TDR is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays and weekends. This new process is intended to eliminate problems associated with e-mailed Office actions that contain numerous attachments.
HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS OFFICE ACTION:
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.uspto.gov/external/portal/tow.
GENERAL TRADEMARK INFORMATION: For general information about trademarks, please visit the Office’s website at http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm
FOR INQUIRIES OR QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS OFFICE ACTION, PLEASE CONTACT THE ASSIGNED EXAMINING ATTORNEY SPECIFIED ABOVE.