To: | Sherman, Patrick (psherman98@yahoo.com) |
Subject: | U.S. Trademark Application Serial No. 88488975 - PA. WILD - N/A |
Sent: | September 17, 2019 05:13:26 PM |
Sent As: | ecom102@uspto.gov |
Attachments: |
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Office Action (Official Letter) About Applicant’s Trademark Application
U.S. Application Serial No. 88488975
Mark: PA. WILD
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Correspondence Address: |
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Applicant: Sherman, Patrick
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Reference/Docket No. N/A
Correspondence Email Address: |
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EXAMINER’S AMENDMENT
Issue date: September 17, 2019
USPTO database searched; no conflicting marks found. The trademark examining attorney searched the USPTO database of registered and pending marks and found no conflicting marks that would bar registration under Trademark Act Section 2(d). 15 U.S.C. §1052(d); TMEP §704.02.
Application has been amended as shown below. As agreed to by Patrick Sherman, on September 17, 2019, the examining attorney has amended the application as shown below. Please notify the examining attorney immediately of any objections. TMEP §707. Otherwise, no response is required. Id. In addition, applicant is advised that amendments to the goods and/or services are permitted only if they clarify or limit them; amendments that add to or broaden the scope of the goods and/or services are not permitted. 37 C.F.R. §2.71(a).
Disclaimer
The following disclaimer statement is added to the record:
No claim is made to the exclusive right to use “PA.” apart from the mark as shown.
See 15 U.S.C. §1056(a); TMEP §§1213, 1213.08(a)(i).
A “disclaimer” is a statement in the application record that an applicant does not claim exclusive rights to an unregistrable component of the mark; a disclaimer of unregistrable matter does not affect the appearance of the mark or physically remove disclaimed matter from the mark. See Schwarzkopf v. John H. Breck, Inc., 340 F.2d 978, 978, 144 USPQ 433, 433 (C.C.P.A. 1965); TMEP §1213. An unregistrable component of a mark includes wording and designs that are merely descriptive of an applicant’s goods and/or services. 15 U.S.C. §1052(e); see TMEP §§1209.03(f), 1213.03 et seq. Such words or designs need to be freely available for other businesses to market comparable goods or services and should not become the proprietary domain of any one party. See Dena Corp. v. Belvedere Int’l, Inc., 950 F.2d 1555, 1560, 21 USPQ2d 1047, 1051 (Fed. Cir. 1991); In re Aug. Storck KG, 218 USPQ 823, 825 (TTAB 1983).
What Happens Next after Examiner’s Amendment
After the trademark examining attorney issues the examiner’s amendment, applicant will not receive a registration on the Principal Register for the applied-for mark until the mark makes it through the publication process and opposition period. The publication process starts once the trademark examining attorney issues the examiner’s amendment and the mark is approved for publication in the USPTO’s Trademark Official Gazette, a weekly online publication. The USPTO will then send a “Notice of Publication” to the applicant specifying the date its mark will publish in this publication.
The USPTO publishes applicant’s mark in the Trademark Official Gazette to provide third parties who believe they may be damaged by registration of applicant’s mark an opportunity to oppose registration of that mark within thirty (30) days from the publication date. An “opposition” is similar to a federal court proceeding, but this proceeding is held before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, a USPTO administrative tribunal of administrative judges who issue decisions on these matters. If a third party opposes registration of applicant’s mark by instituting an opposition proceeding, the USPTO will send applicant notice of this opposition. When this occurs, an applicant may wish to hire an attorney due to the complexity of these proceedings.
If no one opposes registration of the mark, and the mark was published based upon an applicant’s bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce, the USPTO generally issues a “Notice of Allowance” within approximately eight (8) weeks after the publication date. Applicant then has six (6) months from the date of the Notice of Allowance to timely file a “Statement of Use” or to file a request for a six-month “Extension of Time to file a Statement of Use” (extension request). Extension requests are granted in six-month increments and a maximum of five extension requests can be filed after the issuance of the Notice of Allowance. If a Statement of Use is not filed within the six months after the Notice of Allowance issued, a Statement of Use must be filed within the time period of a previously granted extension request. The USPTO will only issue a registration certificate after the trademark examining attorney approves a Statement of Use.
For an overview of the time frames for when an applicant should file and the USPTO will issue documents related to a trademark application, see Trademark Application and Post-Registration Process Timelines. Forms for Statements of Use and extension requests, and additional requirements for intent to use applications, are available online at Intent to Use (ITU) Forms.
/Rudy R. Singleton/
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Trademark Examining Attorney, Law Office 102
571-272-9262
RUDY.SINGLETON@USPTO.GOV