An Office Action from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is how the USPTO notifies you that there is a deficiency in your trademark application, and that they will refuse your application unless the deficiency is resolved.
Check out our descriptions of some of the most common office actions that are issued:
- Likelihood of Confusion
- Merely Descriptive
- Specimen Refusal
- Surname Refusal
- Disclaimer
- Class Refusal
- Multiple Class Requirements
- Legal Entity Error
- Public Symbols
- Living Individual – §2(c) Refusal
- Failure to Function
- 2(a) Immoral, Deceptive, or Scandalous Matter
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issues an Office Action in response to a trademark application when the USPTO’s Examining Attorney believes the application has a legal deficiency.
Office Actions generally include substantive and/or non-substantive matters that require further attention. Substantive matters include a refusal based on a section 2(d) likelihood of confusion determination or a section 2(e)(1) merely descriptive determination. Non-substantive matters include disclaiming a word or phrase, amending the goods/services description, or correcting the specimens.
Here’s more detailed lists on common substantive and non-substantive Office Actions:
Substantive Office Action requests
- Likelihood of confusion
- Merely descriptive
- Distinctiveness
- Arguing a disclaimer is not needed
- Ornamentation refusal
- Missed deadline
- Specimen audit
Non-Substantive Office Actions
- Claiming ownership of competing applications
- Amending from 1(b) to 1(a) filing basis
- Foreign word translation
- Entity type revision
- Adding or revising international class
- Amending identification of goods or services
- Revising to include proper specimens
- Agreeing to a disclaimer request