United States Patent and Trademark Office OG Notices: 06 April 2004

                           The Trademark Operation
                      Will No Longer Accept Responses to
                           Office Actions that are
                             Transmitted by E-Mail

   Currently, applicants may transmit responses to Office Actions
issued by examining attorneys via e-mail. However, beginning
September 20, 2004, the Trademark Operation will cease to maintain
the electronic mail boxes (the "ECom" boxes) to which applicants
now send responses. Thereafter, applicants wishing to transmit
responses electronically must use the Response to Office Action form
within the Trademark Electronic Application System (the TEAS Response
to Office Action form, hereinafter referred to as "the TEAS form"),
which is available at http://www.uspto.gov/teas/index.html. Responses
to Office Actions that are transmitted by any other electronic
means - for example, responses sent directly to an examining attorney's
e-mail address - will not be accepted.

   This new policy pertains solely to responses to Office
Actions issued by examining attorneys. Responses to Office Actions
issued by the Intent to Use Division and by the Post Registration
Division may be transmitted to the "ECom" boxes maintained by these
divisions, namely EComITU@uspto.gov and EcomPRU@uspto.gov.

   Applicants and the Office benefit substantially when applicants
use the TEAS form rather than e-mail. The benefits of using
the TEAS form include the following:

   1. When an applicant uses the TEAS form and the transmission is
successful, the applicant receives immediate acknowledgement that the
USPTO received the response. Likewise, if there is some technical
defect associated with the response that prevents its successful
transmission - for example, if the applicant has attached an image file
that is in a format the Office cannot accept - the applicant will be
notified immediately that its submission cannot be validated. On the
other hand, if an applicant files a response using e-mail, some time
may elapse before the Office can notify the applicant whether the
transmission was accepted for review. Immediate notification may be
particularly important if an applicant submits its response at or near
the end of the response period.

   2. When an applicant uses the TEAS form, an electronic copy of the
response is automatically and instantaneously associated with the
appropriate electronic application file. (The USPTO creates electronic
files for all applications, including ones that were originally
submitted on paper). However, if an applicant transmits a response
using e-mail, the response cannot be associated with the file until the
response has been printed, and until a scanned image of the printout is
entered into the electronic file for the application. Thus, the
processing of responses submitted by e-mail uses valuable resources
that can be better expended to serve other needs of trademark
applicants.

   3. A response to an Office Action may include data that is to be
entered into the record of an application, such as a disclaimer or an
amended identification of goods. When the applicant uses the TEAS form,
such data is entered into the record automatically. On the other hand,
if the applicant files its response via e-mail, it may be necessary for
the Office to enter the data manually, which is costly and subject to
error.

   The following are the Ecom boxes that will not be maintained after
September 20, 2004:

        ECom101@uspto.gov

        ECom102@uspto.gov

        Ecom103@uspto.gov

        ECom104@uspto.gov

        ECom105@uspto.gov

        ECom106@uspto.gov

        ECom107@uspto.gov

        ECom108@uspto.gov

        ECom109@uspto.gov

        ECom110@uspto.gov

        ECom111@uspto.gov

        ECom112@uspto.gov

        ECom113@uspto.gov

        ECom114@uspto.gov

        ECom115@uspto.gov

        ECom116@uspto.gov

   Call the Trademark Assistance Center at 703.308.9000 for help on
trademark matters. Send questions about USPTO programs and services to
the USPTO Contact Center (UCC). You can suggest USPTO webpages or
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webmaster@uspto.gov. While we cannot promise to accommodate all requests,
your suggestions will be considered and may lead to other improvements on
the website.