203    Review for Compliance with Minimum Requirements

In applications under §66(a) of the Trademark Act, 15 U.S.C. §1141f(a), the IB will determine whether the application complies with §66(a) prior to sending the request for extension of protection of an international registration to the USPTO.  See TMEP §§1904-1904.15(c) for further information about §66(a) applications.

Applications under §1 or §44 of the Act are given a receipt date (see TMEP §303.01) and then reviewed for compliance with the minimum requirements for granting a filing date (see 37 C.F.R. §2.21(a)  and TMEP §202 for a list of these requirements).  

If the minimum requirements of 37 C.F.R. §2.21(a)  have been met, the USPTO assigns a filing date as of the date of receipt in the USPTO.  See TMEP §§401-401.03 regarding the processing of new applications that meet the minimum requirements for receipt of a filing date, and §§204-204.03 regarding the processing of applications that do not meet these minimum requirements.

The minimum requirements for receipt of a filing date under 37 C.F.R. §2.21(a)  apply to all applications filed under §1 and §44 of the Act. TEAS will not validate an application if the fields corresponding to the minimum filing requirements are not filled in.  However, if these fields are filled in with incomplete or inappropriate information, the TEAS system will accept the transmission, but the USPTO will later deny the application a filing date upon review for compliance with minimum filing requirements. For example, if the services were identified as "miscellaneous services," TEAS would validate the application and permit the transmission to the USPTO, but the USPTO would ultimately not give the application a filing date (see TMEP §§202.02, 1402.02).