USPTO Restarts Deadlines for Areas Affected by Hurricane Katrina

On September 15, 2005, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was restarting the time period of response to outstanding deadlines in applications having a corresponence address in certain postal areas of Alabama, Louisiana, or Mississippi affected by Hurricane Katrina.

For applications pending as of September 1, 2005, having a correspondence address in postal zip codes 36XXX, 39XXX, 700XX, 701XX, 702XX, 703XX, and 704XX, the Office is withdrawing any outstanding Office actions, notices of allowance, and other Office notices, and re-issuing those documents electronically via its image file wrapper (IFW) system. Applicants may view the included notice restarting the period for response in these applications via the private side of the USPTO's Patent Application Inspection Retrieval (PAIR) system. Applicants who do not currently have access to the private side of the USPTO's PAIR system will still be able to view the notice restarting the period for reply and the Office action, notice of allowance, or other Office notice in published applications via the public side of the USPTO's PAIR system.

Inquiries concerning this notice, or on how to obtain access to the private side of the USPTO PAIR system, may be directed to a legal advisor in the Office of Patent Legal Administration, at 877-PTO-NORL (877-786-6675) or 571-272-7704, or by e-mail at PatentPractice@,uspto.gov.