USPTO · RESPONSE
Office Action Response
A refusal is not the end of your application. We prepare the response, with the legal argument and evidence the examiner needs.
Overview
An office action is a letter from the examining attorney saying your application cannot proceed as filed. It arrives with a hard deadline, and if you miss it the application goes abandoned and the government fee is gone with it.
Most people read one and assume the mark has been rejected outright. Usually it has not. A large share of office actions are procedural — a disclaimer requirement, an identification that needs tightening, a specimen that needs replacing — and are answered successfully as a matter of routine. Even substantive refusals under Section 2(d) or 2(e) are frequently overcome with the right argument and evidence.
Turnaround
Assessment within one business day of receiving the office action. Response typically prepared within five business days, faster where the deadline demands it.
Price
$249
What is included
Everything in office action response
Reading the actual refusal
We identify precisely what is being required, what is being refused, which statutory ground applies, and what evidence the examiner relied on.
Strategy before drafting
Sometimes the right answer is to argue. Sometimes it is to amend the identification, add a disclaimer, or accept the Supplemental Register. We tell you which, and why, before we write a word.
Section 2(d) arguments
Likelihood of confusion refusals answered on the DuPont factors — channels of trade, sophistication of buyers, strength of the cited mark, differences in appearance, sound, meaning and commercial impression.
Section 2(e) arguments
Descriptiveness and geographic refusals answered with the distinction between suggestive and merely descriptive, plus acquired-distinctiveness evidence under Section 2(f) where you have the trading history.
Specimen and identification fixes
Replacement specimens that actually show trademark use, and amended identifications drafted to the Acceptable Identification Manual so they are accepted first time.
Deadline management
We diary the response deadline and any extension window, and we do not let it run down quietly.
How it works
What happens, in order
- 01
Send us the office action
Forward the notice or give us the serial number and we will pull it from the USPTO ourselves.
- 02
We assess and quote
You get an honest read on the odds and a fixed price before any work starts. If we think the mark is not saveable, we say so.
- 03
We draft the response
Argument, amendments and evidence assembled into a response for your review.
- 04
You approve and we file
Filed inside the deadline, with confirmation sent to you.
Questions
Office Action Response FAQs
The USPTO sets the deadline in the office action itself, and it is shorter than most people expect. Extensions are available for some office actions on payment of a fee. Send it to us as soon as it arrives rather than near the end of the window.
It depends entirely on the ground. Procedural requirements are answered successfully the great majority of the time. Substantive refusals vary enormously with the facts. We will give you a candid read on yours rather than a marketing number.
There are usually three routes: argue that it is suggestive rather than descriptive, claim acquired distinctiveness under Section 2(f) if you have five years of substantially exclusive use, or accept registration on the Supplemental Register and build towards the Principal Register later.
Ask about Office action response
We reply to every message within one business day. Or email support@trademarkcertus.com.
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