What your refusal actually means
Five pages, one per refusal type. Each says what the examining attorney decided, what would change their mind, the deadline you are working against — and the argument most applicants reach for on that refusal that does not work. Free, no email.
- Section 2(d) — likelihood of confusionThe examining attorney searched the register, found a mark already registered for related goods or services, and concluded that ordinary buyers could believe your product and theirs come from the same source. Registration is refused until you answer.
- Section 2(e)(1) — merely descriptiveThe examining attorney concluded that your mark immediately tells a buyer something about the product — a quality, feature, function, ingredient, or purpose — rather than functioning as a brand. Registration on the Principal Register is refused until you answer.
- Specimen refusalThe examining attorney concluded that what you submitted does not show the mark being used in commerce on or in connection with the goods or services you identified. This is a refusal about evidence, not about your mark.
- Indefinite identification of goods or servicesThe examining attorney concluded that the wording describing your goods or services is not specific, definite, clear, accurate and concise enough — usually because it names a category rather than the actual products, or because the class is wrong.
- Disclaimer requirementThe examining attorney identified a component of your mark that is generic or descriptive on its own, and requires you to state that you claim no exclusive right to that component apart from the mark as a whole.
Those five are the whole list. If your office action raises something else, markanswer will not draft an answer to it and will not take your money — we have no authorities for it, and inventing them is not a service.
Your deadline, and the number a lot of pages still get wrong
You have 3 months from the issue date printed on the office action — not from the day the email arrived, and not from the day you opened it. One extension of 3 more months is available for $125, and you have to request it before the original date passes (37 C.F.R. §2.62(a)(2)).
This changed on December 3, 2022. Before that the period was a flat six months, and a great deal of guidance still published online says so. If a page tells you that you have six months by right, it is describing the old rule.
USPTO: if a response is filed after the deadline the application will be abandoned and application fees will not be refunded. That is the whole reason to act on this now rather than in a month.
You are allowed to answer this yourself
If the applicant is domiciled in the United States or one of its territories, you may respond to an office action in your own name. You filed the application yourself; you may answer it yourself. Nothing about a refusal changes that.
If the applicant is domiciled anywhere else, the USPTO requires a US-licensed attorney to represent you. markanswer cannot help in that case and refuses the sale before taking any payment, rather than selling you a document you are not permitted to file.
See what a finished response looks like
A complete pack — the arguments, the weaknesses in each one, the filing walkthrough — free to read before you decide anything.