Proposal to Eliminate the Restriction on Additional Extensions of Time Following the Filing of a Statement of Use After the Notice of Allowance Has Issued
INTA, AIPLA, and IPO urge the United States Patent & Trademark Office to revise the Rules of Practice and the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (37 C.F.R. §§ 2.88(f) and 2.89(e)(1)) so that the filing of a Statement of Use (SOU) would not limit an applicant to a single six-month “insurance” extension request if, in fact, time remains in the three-year term following the issuance of the Notice of Allowance (NOA) for additional six-month extension requests, as permitted by Section 1(d) of the statute. This change would allow an applicant filing an intent-to-use (ITU) application the opportunity to meet the use and SOU requirements within the statutory time period.