T.M.E.P. § 717.01
Returned Office Action

Executive summary:

This document contains one section of the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (the "TMEP"), Fourth Edition (April 2005). This page was last updated in June 2007. You may return to one either the section index, or to the key word index. If you wish to search the TMEP, simply use the search box that appears on the bottom of every page of BitLaw--be sure to restrict your search to the TMEP in the pop-up list.

For more information on trademark law, please see the Trademark Section of BitLaw.

Previous Section (§717) | Next Section (§717.02)

717.01 Returned Office Action

If an examining attorney's Office action is returned to the Office because the United States Postal Service has not been able to deliver it, the SLIE in the law office will review the file to determine whether the correspondence address was entered correctly and/or whether the applicant has filed a notice of change of address.

If the Office action was sent to the wrong address due to an Office error (see TMEP §717) , the Office action will be remailed with a new mailing date. However, if the Office action was sent to the correspondence address of record (see TMEP §§603 et seq.), the USPTO will try to obtain the correct address and forward the Office action, but the Office action will not be given a new mailing date, and the deadline for response will not be extended.

If the USPTO is ultimately unsuccessful in delivering or redelivering the Office action, the returned action and envelope should be scanned into the Trademark Image Capture and Retrieval System ("TICRS"). If no communication from the applicant is received within the period for response, the application will be abandoned.

If outgoing e-mail is returned as undeliverable, the USPTO will mail a paper copy to the correspondence address of record. See TMEP §§304 et seq. regarding e-mail.

See TMEP §403 for more information about returned correspondence.