By
Sarah Fendrick --
On Monday
and Tuesday, February 8-9, 2010, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was closed due to
weather. As a result of the
closing, the USPTO will consider each of Monday and Tuesday, February 8-9, 2010 to be a "Federal holiday within the District of Columbia"
under 35 U.S.C. § 21(b) and 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.6, 1.7, 1.9, 2.2(d), 2.195, and
2.196. Thus, according to a USPTO
notice issued earlier today, any action or fee due on either February 8-9, 2010 (or the
preceding Saturday (February 6, 2010) or Sunday (February 7, 2010)) will be
considered as timely for the purposes of, e.g., 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051(b), 1058,
1059, 1062(b), 1063, 1064, 1126(d), or 35 U.S.C. §§ 119, 120, 133, and 151, if
the action is taken, or the fee paid, on the next succeeding business day on
which the USPTO is open.
Any
paper or fee properly deposited in the Express Mail Service of the USPS on
Monday, February 8, 2010, or Tuesday, February 9, 2010, with a "date-in"
of February 8-9, 2010, on the Express Mail mailing
label will be considered filed as of the "date-in."
Correspondence
transmitted electronically to the USPTO will be considered filed in the USPTO
on the date the USPTO received the complete electronic transmission. Correspondence submitted through the patent Electronic Filing System will still
receive the date as indicated on the Acknowledgement Receipt and Trademark
Electronic Application System filings will still receive the date indicated in
the e-mail confirmation sent at the time of a successful filing.
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