Offc Action Outgoing

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

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

 

 

NONFINAL 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).  A link to the appropriate TEAS response form appears at the end of this Office action. 

 

Issue date:  October 23, 2020

 

 INTRODUCTION

 

This Office action is in response to applicant’s communication filed on October 1, 2020 (“Applicant’s Response”).  Based on information and/or documentation in Applicant’s Response, the trademark examining attorney has determined that this application cannot be advanced and a new non-final Office action must issue.  37 C.F.R. §2.61(a); see TMEP §711.02.

 

In a previous Office action dated April 10, 2020, the trademark examining attorney refused registration of the applied-for mark based on the following:

 

Trademark Act Section 2(d) for a likelihood of confusion with a registered mark

 

In addition, applicant was required to satisfy the following requirement:

 

Amend the identification of services

 

Based on applicant’s response, the trademark examining attorney notes that the following requirement has been satisfied:

 

Definite amended identification provided

 

See TMEP §713.02. 

 

The following refusal has also been obviated:

 

Sufficient claim of cited registration in response to Section 2(d) refusal

 

See id.

 

However, a further requirement is now additionally made.  Applicant must respond to all issues raised in this Office action within six (6) months of the date of issuance of this Office action.  37 C.F.R. §2.62(a); see TMEP §711.02.  If applicant does not respond within this time limit, the application will be abandoned.  37 C.F.R. §2.65(a).

 

 

ADDITIONAL FEE REQUIRED – TEAS PLUS STATUS LOST

 

Applicant must submit an additional processing fee of $125 per class because the application as originally filed did not meet the TEAS Plus application filing requirements.  See 37 C.F.R. §2.22(c); TMEP §§819.01-.01(q), 819.04.  Specifically, applicant failed to meet the following requirement:

 

a claim of ownership under 37 C.F.R. §2.36 of applicant’s prior registration for the same mark, in which the owner differs from that in the application, was not provided.

 

The additional processing fee is required regardless of whether applicant satisfies these application requirements.

 

Accordingly, the application will no longer be treated as TEAS Plus; it is now considered a TEAS Standard application.  See 37 C.F.R. §2.22(c); TMEP §819.04.

 

 

RESPONSE GUIDELINES

 

The trademark examining attorney is raising a new nonfinal examination issue in this Office action; therefore, jurisdiction remains with the trademark examining attorney.  See 37 C.F.R. §2.141(a); TMEP §714.05-.05(a).  Filing an appeal with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board would be considered premature at this time.  See TMEP §1501.  Applicant must respond to the trademark examining attorney about the issue raised in this Office action. 

 

Please call or email the assigned trademark examining attorney with questions about this Office action.  Although an examining attorney cannot provide legal advice, the examining attorney can provide additional explanation about the requirement in this Office action.  See TMEP §§705.02, 709.06. 

 

The USPTO does not accept emails as responses to Office actions; however, emails can be used for informal communications and are included in the application record.  See 37 C.F.R. §§2.62(c), 2.191; TMEP §§304.01-.02, 709.04-.05.

 

How to respond.  Click to file a response to this nonfinal Office action.    

 

/Steven W. Ferrell Jr./

Examining Attorney

Law Office 121

(571) 270-3424

steven.ferrell@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 October 23, 2020 for

U.S. Trademark Application Serial No. 88769122

 

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. 

 

 

/Steven W. Ferrell Jr./

Examining Attorney

Law Office 121

(571) 270-3424

steven.ferrell@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 October 23, 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.”