Brown & Michaels

How do I read an Office Action?

Your patent application was filed, and now you've received a communication from the Patent Examiner who was assigned to the application (an "Office Action"), rejecting some or all of the claims. Now what?

First, in the words of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Don't Panic". Nearly all applications receive at least one Office Action. This collection of web pages will help you read the Office Action to see what the Examiner is really saying.

Step 1: Look at the Cover Sheet

This will be the first page in your Office Action. We've highlighted a few important pieces of information in this sample.

Application no.: This is the serial number of your application, and should match the number on your filing receipt (See "how to read a filing receipt"). If it doesn't, this may not be your Office Action - contact the Examiner for clarification.
Examiner: This is the name of the person who has examined your application.
Art Unit: The Examiners in the Patent Office are organized into "Technology Centers", which cover broad ranges of technologies, and the Technology Centers are further divided into "Art Units". Each Art Unit handles a specific type of invention, as defined by the USPTO's classification system. In this case, our Examiner is in Art Unit 2837, which is a part of Technology Center 2830 ("Power Generation and Distribution, Music, Electrical Components and Control Circuits")
Shortened Statutory Period: As the form says, if no shortened period for reply is listed here, you have six months to reply to the office action. However, a shorter time period is almost always listed. In this case, it's two months, because this office action was dealing only with minor wording concerns in an otherwise allowable application. Three months is more common for "ordinary" office actions, or one month for restriction requirements.
Mail Date: This is the most important piece of information on the cover sheet - the time to reply to this Office Action starts from this date. Since this action was mailed on April 19, 2007, and we have two months to respond, we can file our response at any point up to, and including, June 19, 2007, without having to pay late fees.

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Don't forget our "Patent FAQ" page - it has lots of information about patents and the patent process.

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