Office Action Law and Legal Definition
Office action is a letter from a trademark examining attorney providing the legal status of a trademark application. This letter is forwarded to the applicant of the trademark application. There are several types of Office actions: examiner’s amendments, priority actions, non-final Office actions, final Office actions, and suspension inquiry letters.
Generally, office actions are issued to communicate the rejection of an application. An office action comprises of one or both of two elements. The first element is the category of informalities. The second possible element of an office action is actual basis for rejection of the mark itself. Rarely, a mark will be rejected as “immoral or scandalous”, usually if it contains sexually suggestive terms, or vulgarities.
When an office action is issued, the applicant has six months to respond to the examining attorney. If the response is not reasonable the examining attorney will issue final office action.
