717.01 Returned Office Action
If an Office action is returned to the USPTO because the United States Postal Service was not able to deliver it, or because an outgoing e-mail communication was undeliverable, USPTO personnel will review the record to determine whether the correspondence address was entered correctly and/or whether the applicant has filed a notice of change of address. See TMEP §717 regarding the reissuance of an Office action sent to the wrong address due to a USPTO error.
If the USPTO is ultimately unsuccessful in delivering or redelivering the Office action, the returned action and envelope will be scanned into the TICRS database. If no communication from the applicant is received within the period for response, the application will be abandoned.
If outgoing e-mail is returned as undeliverable, the USPTO will send a paper copy to the correspondence address of record. See TMEP §304 regarding e-mail and TMEP §403 for more information about returned correspondence.