Offc Action Outgoing

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

Office Action (Official Letter) About Applicant’s Trademark Application

 

 

 

FINAL OFFICE ACTION

 

The USPTO must receive applicant’s response to this letter within six months of the issue date below or the application will be abandoned.  Respond using the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) and/or Electronic System for Trademark Trials and Appeals (ESTTA).  A link to the appropriate TEAS response form and/or to ESTTA for an appeal appears at the end of this Office action. 

 

 

Issue date:  May 14, 2020

 

 

 

.

INTRODUCTION

 

This Office action is in response to applicant’s communication filed on April 22, 2020.

 

In a previous Office action dated March 23, 2020, the trademark examining attorney required applicant to satisfy the following requirements:  provide domicile address and amend the identification of services.

 

Based on applicant’s response, the trademark examining attorney notes that the following requirement has been satisfied: domicile address provided.  See TMEP §§713.02, 714.04. 

 

Further, the trademark examining attorney maintains and now makes FINAL the requirement in the summary of issues below.  See 37 C.F.R. §2.63(b); TMEP §714.04.

 

SUMMARY OF ISSUES MADE FINAL that applicant must address:

• FINAL: Identification and Classification of Services – Required
• Multiple Class Application Requirements

 

FINAL: IDENTIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF SERVICES – REQUIRED

PLEASE NOTE:  In applicant’s April 22, 2020 response, applicant provided amendments to the Identification and Classification of services.  However, some of the services still appear to be misclassified.  Thus, the following requirement is hereby made FINAL.  Additionally, applicant’s services in International Class 35 require no changes and are not subject to the following requirements.

 

For assistance with identifying and classifying goods and services in trademark applications, please see the USPTO’s online searchable U.S. Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual at http://tess2.gov.uspto.report/netahtml/tidmn.html.  See TMEP §1402.04.

 

Applicant has classified “Providing news, information and commentary in the field of technology, in particular, video games, video game consoles” in International Class 42; however, the proper classification is International Class 41.  Therefore, applicant may respond by (1) adding International Class 41 to the application and reclassifying these services in the proper international class, (2) deleting “Providing news, information and commentary in the field of technology, in particular, video games, video game consoles” from the application, or (3) deleting the remainder of the items in the identification and reclassifying the specified services in the proper international class.  See 37 C.F.R. §§2.86(a), 6.1; TMEP §§1403.02 et seq.  If applicant adds one or more international classes to the application, applicant must comply with the multiple-class requirements specified in this Office action.

 

Applicant should note that any wording in bold, in italics, underlined and/or in ALL CAPS below offers guidance and/or shows the changes being proposed for the identification of services.  If there is wording in the applicant’s version of the identification of services which should be removed, it will be shown with a line through it such as this: strikethrough.  When making its amendments, applicant should enter them in standard font, not in bold, in italics, underlined or in ALL CAPS.

 

Applicant may substitute the following wording, if accurate: 

 

Class 35: [NO CHANGES REQUIRED]

 

Class 41: Providing news, information and commentary in the field of technology, in particular, video games, video game consoles

 

Class 42: Providing news, information, and commentary in the field of technology, in particular computer hardware technology, wearable technology products, mobile products, video games, video game consoles, technology companies relevant financial coverage

 

See TMEP §§1402.01, 1402.03.

 

An applicant may only amend an identification to clarify or limit the services, but not to add to or broaden the scope of the services.  37 C.F.R. §2.71(a); see TMEP §§1402.06 et seq., 1402.07. Generally, any deleted services may not later be reinserted.  See TMEP §1402.07(e).

 

For assistance with identifying and classifying goods and services in trademark applications, please see the USPTO’s online searchable U.S. Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual.  See TMEP §1402.04.

 

MULTIPLE CLASS APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

 

The application references services based on use in commerce in more than one international class; therefore, applicant must satisfy all the requirements below for each international class:

 

(1)        List the services by their international class number in consecutive numerical order, starting with the lowest numbered class (for example, International Class 3: perfume; International Class 18: cosmetic bags sold empty).

 

(2)        Submit a filing fee for each international class not covered by the fees already paid (view the USPTO’s current fee schedule).  Specifically, the application identifies services based on use in commerce that are classified in at least 3 classes; however, applicant submitted fees sufficient for only 2 classes.  Applicant must either (a) submit the filing fees for the classes not covered by the submitted fees or (b) restrict the application to the number of classes covered by the fees already paid.

 

(3)        Submit verified dates of first use of the mark anywhere and in commerce for each international class.  See more information about verified dates of use.

 

(4)        Submit a specimen for each international class.  The current specimen is acceptable for classes 35, 41 and 42.  See more information about specimens.

 

(5)        Submit a verified statement that “The specimen was in use in commerce on or in connection with the services listed in the application at least as early as the filing date of the application.”  See more information about verification.

 

See 37 C.F.R. §2.86(a); TMEP §§1403.01, 1403.02(c).

 

For an overview of the requirements for a Section 1(a) multiple-class application and how to satisfy the requirements online using the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) form, see the Multiple-class Application webpage.

 

RESPONSE GUIDELINES & PARTIAL ABANDONMENT ADVISORY

 

If applicant does not timely respond within six months of the issue date of this final Office action, the following class to which the final requirement applies will be deleted from the application by Examiner’s Amendment:  International Class 42.  37 C.F.R. §2.65(a); see 15 U.S.C. §1062(b).

 

In such case, the application will proceed for the following class only:  International Class 35. 

 

Applicant may respond to this final Office action by providing one or both of the following:

 

(1)        A request for reconsideration that fully resolves all outstanding requirements and refusals; and/or

 

(2)        An appeal to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board with the required filing fees.

 

TMEP §715.01; see 37 C.F.R. §2.63(b)(1)-(2).

 

Please call or email the assigned trademark examining attorney with questions about this Office action. 

 

How to respond.  Click to file a request for reconsideration of this final Office action that fully resolves all outstanding requirements and refusals and/or click to file a timely appeal to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) with the required filing fee(s).

 

 

Megan Aurand

/Megan Aurand/

Examining Attorney

Law Office 128

(571) 272-1614

megan.aurand@uspto.gov

 

 

RESPONSE GUIDANCE

• Missing the response deadline to this letter will cause the application to abandon.  A response or notice of appeal must be received by the USPTO before midnight Eastern Time of the last day of the response period.  TEAS and ESTTA maintenance or unforeseen circumstances could affect an applicant’s ability to timely respond.  

 

• Responses signed by an unauthorized party are not accepted and can cause the application to abandon.  If applicant does not have an attorney, the response must be signed by the individual applicant, all joint applicants, or someone with legal authority to bind a juristic applicant.  If applicant has an attorney, the response must be signed by the attorney.

 

• If needed, find contact information for the supervisor of the office or unit listed in the signature block.

 

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

 

USPTO OFFICIAL NOTICE

 

Office Action (Official Letter) has issued

on May 14, 2020 for

U.S. Trademark Application Serial No. 88742411

 

Your trademark application has been reviewed by a trademark examining attorney.  As part of that review, the assigned attorney has issued an official letter that you must respond to by the specified deadline or your application will be abandoned.  Please follow the steps below.

 

(1)  Read the official letter.

 

(2)  Direct questions about the contents of the Office action to the assigned attorney below. 

 

 

Megan Aurand

/Megan Aurand/

Examining Attorney

Law Office 128

(571) 272-1614

megan.aurand@uspto.gov

 

Direct questions about navigating USPTO electronic forms, the USPTO website, the application process, the status of your application, and/or whether there are outstanding deadlines or documents related to your file to the Trademark Assistance Center (TAC).

 

(3)  Respond within 6 months (or earlier, if required in the Office action) from May 14, 2020, using the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS).  The response must be received by the USPTO before midnight Eastern Time of the last day of the response period.  See the Office action for more information about how to respond

 

 

 

GENERAL GUIDANCE

·         Check the status of your application periodically in the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) database to avoid missing critical deadlines.

 

·         Update your correspondence email address, if needed, to ensure you receive important USPTO notices about your application.

 

·         Beware of misleading notices sent by private companies about your application.  Private companies not associated with the USPTO use public information available in trademark registrations to mail and email trademark-related offers and notices – most of which require fees.  All official USPTO correspondence will only be emailed from the domain “@uspto.gov.”