T.M.E.P. § 709.04
Telephone Communications

Executive summary:

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709.04 Telephone Communications

Use of the telephone is encouraged. Examining attorneys should initiate telephone interviews whenever possible to expedite prosecution of an application. Similarly, applicants and attorneys for applicants may telephone examining attorneys if they feel that a call will advance prosecution of an application.

All amendments and other papers filed in the USPTO should include the telephone number of the applicant or the applicant's attorney.

The examining attorney should return telephone calls within a reasonable time, normally the same working day and never later than the next working day.

Generally, the examining attorney who prepared the action, and not the supervisory or reviewing examining attorney, should be the person contacted in a telephone interview. However, a non-signatory examining attorney must secure proper authorization from the managing attorney, senior attorney or reviewing examining attorney before approving an amendment.

The action of the USPTO is based exclusively on the written record. 37 C.F.R. 2.191. Therefore, the examining attorney must use an examiner's amendment (see TMEP §§707 et seq.), priority action (see TMEP §§708 et seq.), memo to the file, or notation in the "Notes to the File" section of the record to make the substance of the call or the resolution of any issue part of the record. See TMEP §709.03.