| Mail Issues, Office Closures, Postal Emergencies, etc. |
Referenced Items (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91) |
(17) Closing of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
on Thursday, March 5, 2015
In view of the official closing of the Federal Government offices in the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including the United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO), on Thursday, March 5, 2015, the USPTO will
consider Thursday, March 5, 2015, to be a "Federal holiday within the
District of Columbia" under 35 U.S.C. § 21 and 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.6, 1.7, 1.9,
2.2(d), 2.195, and 2.196. Any action or fee due on Thursday, March 5,
2015, will be considered as timely for the purposes of, e.g., 15 U.S.C.
§§ 1051(b), 1058, 1059, 1062(b), 1063, 1064, and 1126(d), or 35 U.S.C.
§§ 119, 120, 133, and 151, if the action was taken, or the fee paid, on the
next succeeding business day on which the USPTO was open, that is, Friday,
March 6, 2015 (37 C.F.R. §§ 1.7(a) and 2.196).
37 C.F.R. §§ 1.6(a)(2), 2.195(a)(4), and 2.198 provide that certain
correspondence deposited in the Priority Mail Express® service of the
United States Postal Service (USPS) in accordance with 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.10 or
2.198 will be considered filed on the date of deposit (as shown by the
"date accepted" on the mailing label) with the USPS. Thus, any paper or fee
properly deposited in the Priority Mail Express® service of the USPS on
Thursday, March 5, 2015, in accordance with 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.10 or 2.198,
will be considered filed on its respective date of deposit in the Priority
Mail Express® service of the USPS (as shown by a "date accepted" of March
5, 2015, on the mailing label).
37 C.F.R. §§ 1.6(a)(4) and 2.195(a)(2) provide that patent- and
trademark-related correspondence transmitted electronically to the USPTO
will be considered filed in the USPTO on the date the USPTO received the
electronic transmission. Thus, any patent- or trademark-related
correspondence transmitted electronically to the USPTO on Thursday, March
5, 2015, will be considered filed in the USPTO on the date the USPTO
received the electronic transmission. Patent correspondence successfully
received by the USPTO through the Electronic Filing System (EFS-Web) and
filed in compliance with the EFS-Web Legal Framework will receive the date
as indicated on the Acknowledgement Receipt. See the Manual of Patent
Examining Procedure (MPEP) § 502.05 and the USPTO Web site at
www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/New_legal_framework.jsp.
Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) filings will receive the
date indicated in the e-mail confirmation sent at the time of a successful
filing.
March 30, 2015 MICHELLE K. LEE
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and
Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
[1414 OG 190]
Top of Notices (17) December 26, 2017