Trademark Refusal

A refusal, or Office Action, is a rejection of a trademark registration application from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  A refusal may be full or partial.  That is, a full refusal rejects the application in full, while a partial refusal rejects some aspect of the application but allows other aspects.  Refusals are issued by trademark Examining Attorneys who work for the USPTO.  Some common types of rejections found in a refusal are, for example, likelihood of confusion, indefinite identification of goods/services, lack of or incomplete description of the mark, and the requirement to state whether the mark has a meaning in a foreign language or has meaning within the applicant’s industry.

 

Typically, an applicant has six months to respond to a refusal.  A response must address each and every basis of rejection in the refusal.  Responses are usually filed with the USPTO via the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS).  Depending on the type of rejections of the refusal, the applicant may respond directly via TEAS.  For more complex refusals, an applicant may require the expertise of a trademark attorney.

 

The first refusal received by an applicant is typically called a non-final refusal (or non-final Office Action), meaning the applicant is permitted respond to the refusal in full.  A second refusal received by an applicant for the same trademark application is typically called a final refusal (or final Office Action).  A response to a final refusal is limited to certain actions by the applicant.

 

See also:

Trademark

Trademark Application

 

 

Related links:

Useful Links – U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Filed under the Intellectual Property Law category.

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