A filing action is a document created by the USPTO that informs patent applicants of their application’s status. It includes reasons for approval or rejection, prior art, and a section for applicant information. The document is divided into three parts and the applicant has six months to respond.
A filing action is a written manuscript created by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that informs an applicant of the status of his patent application. Usually, the Patent Office assigns a Patent Examiner to each application, who then writes the document himself. The applicant, therefore, is required to reply to the document once received.
If a patent application is denied or approved, ex officio action is required. In both cases, the document will state the reasons for the rejection or approval after a thorough examination of the patent. It will also take note of the prior art, which references all relevant patent information relating to originality claims. In the event of rejected applications, common reasons may include non-originality or a similarity to an existing patent. Patent descriptions that are too broad or too narrow can also be grounds for rejection. In rare circumstances, a patent examiner may also rate the patent application as vulgar or sexually immoral.
A section called “about” can also be included in an office action. This part refers specifically to the information provided by the applicant, not to the invention itself. Informalities concern situations such as lack of sufficient information, accidental exclusion of partner names, if applicable, or unsatisfactory examples of the uses of the object.
Generally, an ex officio action can be divided into three parts. The first part is the cover page, where important information such as the application number, the name of the applicant and the name of the examiner are noted. The cover sheet also specifies in which “art unit” the invention can be classified, for example in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing and Products. The page also includes important dates such as the notification and response time frame, which will tell the requester how much time they have to respond to the bureau’s action.
The second part of the office’s action is the summary, which outlines the status of the application, the disposition of complaints and the evaluation of the application documents. The third part consists of the attached communications, which detail the examination of the patent and the reasoning for the status of the application. Sections in the submissions may include the examiner’s corrections for misspelled or omitted words and his or her reasons for rejecting the invention claim. Below the application rejections, the action office may further notate different sections of the patent law as the basis for the rejection.
The applicant is required to respond to the bureau’s action within six months. If the applicant replies within the first three months, he is not required to pay any extension fee. If the applicant does not respond within six months, his patent application can most likely be abandoned.
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