Examining attorney reviews your application
After you submit your initial application and fee, your application is assigned a serial number and a trademark examining attorney. The examining attorney will review your application to make sure it meets all the legal requirements and that your trademark is registrable. Find out more about common problems with trademark applications.
As part of this review, we search our database of registered and pending trademarks to determine whether your trademark conflicts with any of them. We research whether your trademark has any meaning in your particular industry, review your identification of goods or services, and ensure you’ve complied with the filing basis requirements.
Examining attorney decision and your response
If the examining attorney determines your application meets all the legal requirements for registration on the Principal Register and there are no substantive issues, such as no conflicting trademarks in our database, the examining attorney will approve your trademark for publication.
If the examining attorney determines your trademark isn’t registrable, the examining attorney will issue an office action. This official letter explains why registration is being refused and includes any suggestions for fixing the application, if available. You must respond to the office action and correct the problems listed within the letter by the stated deadline. If your response corrects all the problems, the examining attorney will approve your trademark for publication.
If your response does not correct all the problems, the examining attorney will send you a final office action. This letter states that your trademark won’t be registered. You can file an appeal of this final decision with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). If you win your appeal, the examining attorney will approve your trademark for publication.
You may not always be able to fix a requirement or refusal. Find out more about responding to office actions. If only minor corrections are required, the examining attorney may email or call you.
If you don’t respond to an office action within the required time period or you lose your TTAB appeal, your application will be considered abandoned.
Abandoned applications
If you miss a filing deadline, we will consider your application abandoned. For example, if you don’t respond to an office action by its deadline, we will declare your application abandoned and send you a notice of abandonment. You may be able to revive your application if you unintentionally missed your filing deadline.