For businesses · OFFICE ACTION
You received an Office Action
An Office Action is the examining attorney’s position, not the end of your application. Most pre-registration Office Actions give you three months to respond, with a one-time three-month extension available for a fee. Section 66(a) Madrid applications generally get six months with no extension, and some other actions run to different periods. Your Office Action states the deadline that applies to you. Start by finding your refusal below.
The deadline. For most Section 1 and Section 44 applications, the response deadline is three months from the issue date, with one three-month extension available for a fee. Other actions can have different deadlines. Follow the deadline stated in your Office Action. Miss it and the application is abandoned; reviving it is possible but neither cheap nor certain.
Step 1 — Which refusal did you get?
It is printed at the top of the letter. You may have more than one.
Likelihood of confusionSection 2(d)
Merely descriptiveSection 2(e)(1) · page in drafting
Specimen refusedRule 2.56 · page in drafting
Disclaimer requiredSection 6 · page in drafting
Something elsepage in drafting
Pick a refusal above to continue.
Who checked this
Reviewed and approved by Brandon Leavitt on 2026-10-02.