803.05(b) Email Address
Applicants must provide and maintain a valid email address. See 37 C.F.R §§2.23(b), 2.32(a)(2). The applicant’s email address is a filing-date requirement and is required even if the applicant has appointed a qualified U.S. attorney, so that the USPTO can contact the applicant if representation ends. See 37 C.F.R §2.21(a)(1); TMEP §202.
The applicant may provide an email address of its choice, including an email specifically created for receiving USPTO correspondence. If the applicant is represented by a qualified U.S. attorney, the email address listed in the owner field may not be identical to the listed email address of its attorney.
The email address listed in the owner field for trademark applicants who are represented by a qualified U.S. attorney will not be publicly viewable. Only the email address of the attorney will be publicly viewable, and the USPTO will use the attorney’s email address for correspondence.
The email address listed in the owner field for trademark applicants who are not represented by a qualified U.S. attorney will be used by the USPTO for correspondence and will be publicly viewable as the correspondence email address. To avoid receiving unsolicited communications at a personal or business email address, applicants may wish to create an email address specifically for communication and correspondence related to their trademark filings at the USPTO.
For in-house counsel and attorneys representing themselves in a matter, the TEAS forms will require two different email addresses: one for the owner email address field and one for the attorney email address field. For technical reasons related to the TEAS forms, these addresses cannot be identical.
Section 66(a) applications. The requirement for an applicant to provide and maintain a valid email address also applies to applications filed under Trademark Act Section 66(a). 37 C.F.R §§2.23(b), 7.25(a). This is not a filing-date requirement for an initial Section 66(a) application, because these are transmitted to the USPTO by the International Bureau (IB) and generally do not include an email address for receiving USPTO correspondence. In addition, if a Section 66(a) application is otherwise in condition for approval for publication upon first action, the examining attorney may approve the application for publication and should not require the applicant to appoint an attorney authorized to practice before the USPTO or to provide an email address. However, the applicant will be required to appoint an attorney authorized to practice before the USPTO and provide an email address in any subsequent submissions. See TMEP §601.01(a)regarding applicants with a non-U.S. domicile and §714.05 regarding the deadline within which all refusals and/or requirements must be notified to the IB.
Certain treaty filers exempt from email requirement. If the applicant is a national of a country that has acceded to the Trademark Law Treaty, but not to the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks, the requirement to provide the applicant’s email address does not apply. 37 C.F.R §§2.21(c), 2.23(c); see TMEP §301.02(c).