601.01(c)(i)    Determining the Acceptability of Domicile Addresses

Addresses that do not identify an actual street address or that function as a mail forwarding address are presumptively unacceptable as domicile addresses.

Such addresses include post-office (P.O.) boxes, "care of" (c/o) addresses, commercial mail receiving agency (CMRA) addresses, registered agent (RA) addresses, private mailboxes (PMB), Army Post Office (APO) addresses, Fleet Post Office (FPO) addresses, Diplomatic Post Office (DPO) addresses, and Highway Contract Route (HCR or HC) addresses. These addresses, along with virtual office and shared workspace addresses, can be a mailing address, but generally may not serve as domicile addresses because they do not identify the location of the place the person resides and intends to be the person’s principal home (for a natural person) or the location of a juristic entity’s headquarters where the entity’s senior executives or officers ordinarily direct and control the entity’s activities (for a juristic entity).

Examining attorneys and post-registration examiners are not required to confirm or research a listed domicile address in the initial application or maintenance filing, but they must require the applicant or registrant to provide an acceptable domicile address if:

  • (1) it is apparent that the address is an unacceptable type of domicile address (e.g., P.O. box, c/o, PMB, APO, FPO, DPO, HCR or HC appears in the address); or
  • (2) the examining attorney receives specific guidance that the domicile address should not be accepted.

Examining attorneys and post-registration examiners must also require a domicile address if an applicant or registrant fails to provide a street address entirely or provides a clearly invalid address (e.g., 123 Street Name, Your City, State, 12345).

Examining attorneys and post-registration examiners must require an acceptable domicile address even if the applicant or registrant provided a domicile address in the masked "Domicile Address" field. In such cases, an examining attorney or post-registration examiner should not list the exact address in the Office action. However, if evidence is being attached to the Office action to support the inquiry, an examining attorney may attach evidence that identifies the address if necessary. Applicant may then later petition the USPTO to have that information redacted.

No requirement for a street address should be made to U.S. government entities or federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes with a U.S. post-office box address. In addition, although APO, FPO, and DPO addresses are presumptively unacceptable as a domicile address, such addresses are considered U.S. addresses even if located in a foreign country.

Domicile address may not be obtained by examiner’s amendment. Not all applicants understand that domicile address information entered by examiner’s amendment will become part of the public record. Therefore, examining attorneys may not obtain and enter an applicant’s domicile address by examiner’s amendment, even if the applicant indicates an understanding that domicile information entered in this manner will not be hidden or "masked."