Unfortunately, the USPTO has strict deadlines under which you must provide a Response or else you risk the abandonment of your Application. If you fail to provide a Response within these strict deadlines, you will then receive a “Notice of Abandonment”.
If your application has abandoned, here are three important considerations.
First, you might be eligible to apply to revive your application but there are still time-sensitive considerations.
To do so, you have to file a petition to revive your application no later than two months from the issue date of the Notice of Abandonment you received.
But, if you failed to respond because you did not receive the Notice of Abandonment, then you have to file a petition to revive two months after the date of your actual knowledge of the abandonment, and, no later than 6 months after the date the USPTO electronic systems show that the application is abandoned.
Let’s use some examples.
So, let’s say your application abandoned on January 1, 2022, but you never received the Notice of Abandonment. But you became aware of the abandonment on February 1, 2022. Since you now have actual knowledge of the abandonment, you’d have two months from February 1, 2022 in order to file to revive your application.
Now let’s say the USPTO records show your application abandoned on January 1, 2022, but you didn’t become aware of the abandonment until May 1, 2022. At that point, you would only have one month to file to revive your application. How come you wouldn’t have two months like in the last example?
Because you only have a 6-month period from when the USPTO records showed that your application abandoned, regardless of when you became aware of the abandonment. So, in this case, you only have one month left before the 6-month deadline runs out.
Finally, let’s say the USPTO records show your application abandoned on January 1, 2022, but you didn’t become aware of the abandonment until November of 2022. Since that’s more than 6 months after the USPTO records showed that your application abandoned, you are no longer eligible to file to revive your application.
Remember that regardless of when you become aware of the abandonment, you will only have a 6-month period from the date that the USPTO electronic records shows the abandonment date.
Second, in most cases you’ll have to pay a $100 fee to revive your application.
Third, per the USPTO web site, “you will have to provide a signed statement by someone with first-hand knowledge of the facts stating that the delay in responding was unintentional”.
