TradeMark Express Blog: All Things Trademark

Trademark News: New Procedure at the USPTO

A few days ago, the USPTO announced a change in their procedure to submit "amendments/corrections to trademark applications after publication".

This got me thinking that this would be a good opportunity to remind readers to stay on top of your trademark filing. It's up to the applicant to be aware of their trademark's status; the USPTO is not going to remind applicants of anything. Also, if the USPTO sends you an email that you never got, it's up to you let them know.

That being said, here's how you check your status:

• Go to the Status Page
• Enter your 8-digit serial number (it will start with a 7) in the field and click Request Status
• Your filing will pop right up. Two areas to pay attention to:
• Current Status
• Prosecution History

Here are the definitions to some of the more common status descriptions:

Abandoned

"An application that has been declared abandoned is "dead" and no longer pending. Abandonment occurs under several circumstances. The most common reason is when the USPTO does not receive a response to an Office Action letter from an applicant within 6 months from the date the Office action letter was mailed. Another instance is when the USPTO does not receive a Statement of Use (or request for an extension of time to file a statement of use) from an applicant within 6 months from the issuance of a Notice of Allowance). Applications abandoned for failure to respond to an Office Action or a Notice of Allowance can be revived or reinstated in certain circumstances.

Non-final action has been mailed

An Office action letter that raises new issues and usually is the first phase of the examination process. An examining attorney will issue a non-final Office action after reviewing the application for the first time. If a new issue arises after the applicant responds to the first non-final Office action, the examining attorney will issue another non-final Office action that sets forth the new issue(s) and continues any that remain outstanding. Applicants must respond to non-final Office action letters within 6 months from the date they are issued to avoid abandonment of the application."

Newly filed application, not yet assigned to an examining attorney.

Basically, this means that the application has been received but has not yet been assigned to the examining attorney. An examining attorney is "a USPTO employee who examines (reviews and determines compliance with the legal and regulatory requirements of) an application for registration of a federally registered trademark."

trademark trademark news uspto uspto news trademark status trademark application