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Response to Office Action Form
Use this form either to (1) respond to an Office Action that a Law Office examining attorney has
issued (i.e., a regular letter; a Priority Action; an Examiner's Amendment/Priority Action (where a response
is still required for the "Priority Action" portion;" a Suspension letter; or a Suspension Inquiry letter), based
on an application or Statement of Use; or (2) pay an additional fee. Do not use this form to respond after a final
action has issued. To submit a request for reconsideration after a final action, you must use
the Request for Reconsideration form, or
file an appeal to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (see http://estta.uspto.gov/). Also, do not use this form to respond to any actions
mailed after the mark is published and/or registered, as the Intent-to-Use (ITU) or Post-Registration units issue them. Forms
for that purpose will be available in the future. Until then, you must submit responses to those types of actions via regular
mail. Also, if the original application was filed under Section 1(b), Intent to Use, this form is not the correct
method for now making use dates of record. You must file an Allegation of Use form.
If you have received an Office Action from an examining attorney regarding your application, you must
respond within six (6) months of the mailing date of the Office action, or your application will be abandoned. If the
Office Action is a "Priority Action," responding within two (2) months will give you priority handling; however, you do
have the full six (6) month response period, if necessary). Your response must arrive on the USPTO server prior to
Midnight, Eastern Standard Time, of the last day of the response period- any problem with transmission will not excuse
an untimely response. Should the last day of the response period fall on a Saturday, Sunday or U.S. Federal Holiday, you
may submit your response prior to Midnight, Eastern Standard Time, of the next regular business day, and it will be
considered "timely." You should respond to each point raised in the Office Action Form fully and completely. On the
other hand, if prior to receiving an Office Action, you wish to amend or supplement your original filing, you may
submit a Preliminary Amendment form. However, please note
that you must wait approximately 7-10 days after your original submission to file the Preliminary Amendment, because
the original application data must first be fully loaded into the
USPTO's TARR database.
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