117.01 In General
Whenever the Board takes an action in a proceeding before it, the Board sends a copy of the action to each party or to the party’s attorney. For an unrepresented party, such correspondence will be sent to the party at the party’s address of record in the proceeding, which may be updated by the party by designating in writing another address to which correspondence is to be sent. If an appearance is made on behalf of the party by an attorney (as defined in 37 C.F.R. § 11.1 ), or a written power of attorney is filed, the Board will send correspondence to the attorney who makes the appearance, or to the attorney designated in the power of attorney. [ Note 1.] If there is no attorney of record for a foreign-domiciled party, but a domestic representative has been appointed, correspondence will be sent to the domestic representative until an attorney is appointed. [ Note 2.]
If the Board has an email address for Board correspondence with a party, notice of all Board actions will be sent by email. [ Note 3.] A "hard copy" may not be sent by postal mail. For applications filed prior to February 15, 2020, an email address for Board correspondence will be obtained in the case of an applicant in an ex parte appeal or in an opposition if the applicant had previously supplied an email address in connection with the prosecution of the subject application and had authorized the Office to communicate with applicant by email. For applications filed on or after February 15, 2020, the Board will obtain and use the valid email address required to be provided by all applicants and registrants that are not exempted by treaty or by any appointed attorney for receipt of correspondence from the USPTO. [ Note 4.] In all other cases, the Board will obtain an email address for a party when that party files correspondence with the Board using ESTTA, or files a change of correspondence address specifying an email address.
The Board considers the submission of filings using ESTTA as consent to the Board’s sending notice of Board actions by email. Unlike the case with paper correspondence, a party may designate more than one email address (separated by commas, up to a limit of 800 characters) for receipt of notice of Board actions. Because notice of Board actions will not always be sent by both electronic and postal mail, it is essential that parties filing electronically with the Board adjust their email "spam" filters to always accept messages from the USPTO domain (uspto.gov). The USPTO webpage entitled "Don’t Miss Important E-mails from the USPTO: Add the USPTO to your ‘Safe Senders’ list" at https://www.uspto.gov/trademark/trademark-updates-and-announcements/dont-miss-important-e-mails-uspto includes instructions to ensure that USPTO emails reach the recipient.
If the Board does not have an email address for Board correspondence with a party, a copy of any Board action taken in the case will be sent to that party by postal mail at the party's address of record.
The mailing of correspondence in accordance with standard Office mailing procedures creates a presumption of receipt of correspondence. [ Note 5.]
NOTES:
1. See Societe des Produits Nestle S.A. v. Basso Fedele & Figli, 24 USPQ2d 1079, 1079-1080 (TTAB 1992) (new power of attorney filed); Djeredjian v. Kashi Co., 21 USPQ2d 1613, 1614 n.1 (TTAB 1991) (appearance made by filing motion in the proceeding).
2. See 37 C.F.R. § 2.18(b) (changing the correspondence address). See, e.g., Equine Touch Foundation Inc. v. Equinology Inc., 91 USPQ2d 1943, 1944 n.3 (TTAB 2009) (noting that although counsel filed an answer for respondent, the ESTTA cover sheet generated in filing the answer still listed the correspondence address as respondent rather than counsel and that "[i]f counsel intends to represent respondent throughout the remainder of this proceeding, counsel should file a change of correspondence address to list himself and his address as the address for correspondence from the Board and future service copies from petitioner.").
3. CHANGES TO THE TRADEMARK RULES OF PRACTICE TO MANDATE ELECTRONIC FILING, 84 Fed. Reg. 37081, 37082 (July 31, 2019) ("This rule requires applicants and registrants, and parties to a proceeding before the TTAB, to provide and maintain an email address for correspondence.").
4. CHANGES TO THE TRADEMARK RULES OF PRACTICE TO MANDATE ELECTRONIC FILING, 84 Fed. Reg. 37081, 37082-84 (July 31, 2019); CHANGES TO THE TRADEMARK RULES OF PRACTICE TO MANDATE ELECTRONIC FILING, 84 Fed. Reg. 69330, 69330 (Dec. 18, 2019) (delay of effective date to February 15, 2020).
5. Jack Lenor Larsen Inc. v. Chas. O. Larson Co., 44 USPQ2d 1950, 1953 (TTAB 1997).