United States Patent and Trademark Office OG Notices: 11 October 2005

                   Office Actions and Notice of Allowances
                        Previously Mailed to Areas of
                     Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi
                         Affected by Hurricane Katrina

   The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) considers
the effects of Hurricane Katrina to be an "extraordinary situation"
within the meaning of 37 CFR 1.183 for the affected applicants. On
September 1, 2005, the USPTO ceased mailing of correspondences to the
affected zip codes listed below. For applications pending in the Office
as of September 1, 2005 having a correspondence address in the affected
areas of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi in which a reply to an
Office action (final, non-final, or other), a notice of allowance, or
other Office notice is outstanding, and has not yet expired, the USPTO
is withdrawing the Office action, notice of allowance, or other Office
notice, and re-issuing an Office action, notice of allowance, or other
Office notice as applicable. See MPEP Sec. 710.06 (Situations When Reply
Period Is Reset or Restarted).

   The United States Postal Service (USPS) has indicated that
there is a service interruption in the areas of Alabama, Louisiana, and
Mississippi affected by Hurricane Katrina. Therefore, the USPTO is
withdrawing the previous Office action, notice of allowance, or other
Office notice, and re-issuing an Office action, notice of allowance, or
other Office notice as applicable in its image file wrapper (IFW) of
the application, for applications having a correspondence address in
the following USPS zip codes in Alabama, Louisiana, or Mississippi:
36XXX, 39XXX, 700XX, 701XX, 702XX, 703XX, and 704XX. This Official
Gazette notice is the notice required by 35 U.S.C. 133 and 37 CFR 1.33
because the usual mailing of a notice of this actions (i.e.,
mailing a copy of the re-issued Office action) would be futile because
of the USPS service interruption.

   Applicants may view the notice restarting the period for reply
and the Office action, notice of allowance or other Office notice in
their application via the private side of the USPTO's Patent
Application Inspection Retrieval (PAIR) system. Applicants who do not
currently have access to the private side of the USPTO's PAIR system
will still be able to view the notice restarting the period for reply
and the Office action, notice of allowance, or other Office notice in
published applications via the public side of the USPTO's PAIR system.

   Inquiries concerning this notice, or on how to obtain access to
the private side of the USPTO PAIR system, may be directed to a legal
advisor in the Office of Patent Legal Administration, at 877-PTO-NORL
(877-786-6675) or 571-272-7704, or by e-mail at
PatentPractice@uspto.gov.

September 15, 2005                                                JOHN DOLL
                                                   Commissioner for Patents