An Entity Clarification Requirement is a common requirement.

The basic idea here is that, based on the ownership information you provided in your initial application, there is some confusion about the owner of your trademark.

As background, trademarks can be owned by a variety of owners, ranging from an LLC to an individual.  More specifically, when the owner of the trademark is listed as an LLC, that LLC - and not an individual - owns that trademark.

Here, the USPTO simply needs clarification on who owns your mark.

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First, you need to consider, Who is the actual owner of your trademark?  

For instance, let’s say you are an individual and you also own an LLC with the company name of Barbara’s Barbershop.  You have to decide whether you - as an individual - want to own the trademark.  Or, you can decide that the company Barbara’s Barbershop, which was organized as an LLC as its legal entity, actually owns the trademark.

Second, you need to provide this clarification in your Response to the Office Action.

For instance, if the owner of the mark is an individual, I’d write the name of the individual, such as Barbara Smith, and then specify that the owner of the mark is an “individual”.  You would also need to then specify the citizenship of the individual.

Now, there is no confusion as to who owns the trademark because I’ve listed an individual’s name, and then specified that the trademark belongs to an individual.

Or, let’s say that I want the owner of the trademark to be the company, which I’ve registered as an LLC.  In that case, I’d list the owner of the mark as the name of the company, which is Barbara’s Barbershop, and specify the legal entity as an LLC.  I’d also then specify the state in which I registered the LLC, such as New York.

But, if I had submitted in my application that the owner was Barbara’s Barbershop, and then I listed the legal owner as an “individual”, you can see why the USPTO would be confused since “Barbara’s Barbershop” is not the name of an individual!

So, in your response, think about who owns the trademark, and then make sure the owner of the trademark is consistent with the legal owner or legal entity, such as an “individual” or “LLC”.