A. General Guidelines on Sending E-mail Office Actions

If the applicant has properly authorized electronic communication, we must send our Office Actions via e-mail if at all possible. 64 FR 33056, 33062 (June 21, 1999). Most e-TEAS filers have given us this us this authorization by virtue of their having checked the "electronic communication authorization box" on the E-TEAS form. For other filers, our normal rules apply, that is, changes to the correspondence address must be in writing. The easiest way to get written authorization is to have the applicant send an e-mail message to you authorizing electronic correspondence. It must contain the authorization, a valid e-mail address and it must be signed in the format acceptable for e-mail communication i.e.: /Buggs Bunny/. Enter this in TradeUps, or have it entered by an LIE and let the electronic communication begin!

There are a few special requirements for our e-mailing Office Actions:

1. The only attachments we accept from applicants are .jpg images. This is because a computer virus cannot be embedded into .jpg images, and because .jpg images are not proprietary. It's only fair that we abide by the same rules we require applicants to abide by. Therefore, the only files that may be attached to outgoing e-mail are .jpg images. The Office Action itself must be sent as text in the body of the message, NOT as an attached Word document (i.e., a ".doc" file).

2. The serial number must be included in the Subject line.

3. As you know, your Office Action has to be signed per TMEP 1106.12. Since the Office Action is electronic, you must use the signature format indicated in 64 FR 33056, 33062 (June 21, 1999), i.e. /Buggs Bunny/. NO OTHER FORM OF SIGNATURE is permitted...except you would substitute your own name for that of Buggs, but you knew that.

The USPTO's TEAS Page sets forth all of the rules for e-mail responses from applicants. This web site is listed in the 'how to respond' section at the bottom of the Office Action forms. It might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with these rules since we must follow the same rules as the applicant when we send the actions.

It is also a good idea to add your office's ecom mailbox address to your Word template personal information so that it appears under your signature with your phone number and other information. The official e-mail address for responses is ecomXXX@uspto.gov, where the X's represent your law office number. The goal is to have applicants respond to your actions at that address, rather than to your own personal e-mail address so you don't have official responses intermingled with your personal e-mail. You add the ecom mailbox address to your Microsoft Word User Information by opening any document in Word and then choosing "Tools," "Options" and then clicking the tab that says "User Information." List your ecom address at the bottom of the information in the Mailing Address box and then hit "OK." You might want to follow it with "(formal responses only)."

B. Sending E-mail Office Actions

The 4 buttons shown below should appear as a toolbar along the top of your screen in Word. This toolbar will allow you to quickly and easily issue Office Actions.

1. Prepare an office Action in MS Word using an Office Action template, add your required signature, i.e., /your name/, add as attachments any other digital evidence, copies of cited registrations, etc. You should copy and paste anything that can be reproduced as plain text at the end of your Office Action, and then save the Office Action. Adding attachments that you have previously created is as simple as clicking the button on the Word toolbar that reads Attachments and selecting the individual file(s) that you want to attach from where they are located on your C or H drive.

2. Now, as long as the applicant has properly authorized e-mail communication, click the button that reads "Send As Ecomm EMail." The system will then automatically
   • pull the correspondence e-mail address from TRAM and use it in the To field;

   • use your law office ecom e-mail address in the From field;

   • place the serial number and description of the mark in the Subject line;

   • load a copy of your office action and any attachments into TICRS; and

   • print a copy of your office action and any attachments from your local desktop printer.

3. TRAM the action (EA, PA, OA, etc.) using the regular TRAM transactions and put the file in your Law Office's "Electronic Office Actions" bin. TRAM code 6076 has been added to the system so that TRAM will reflect that an office action was sent via e-mail.

If you need to reuse the same template to do a similar letter, you can change the serial number (and thus the mailing address etc.) pulled from TRAM at any point by simply clicking the button on the Word toolbar that reads ChangeSN and looks like this:

If the applicant has not properly authorized us to communicate with them via e-mail, you can simply click the button on the Word toolbar that reads Send As Paper Mail. The system will then automatically

1. load a copy of your office action and any attachments into TICRS; and

2. print two copies of your office action from your local desktop printer.

The following steps will enable you to choose the default folder for the Attachments button in Word so that it will go to 'Aevidence' or whichever folder you choose each and every time you seek to add an attachment to an Office Action.

In Word:

1. Choose Tools on the top menu bar, then choose Options and then choose the File Location tab.

2. Double click on the entry in the box that reads "clipart pictures" - this will open up a window called "Modify Location".

3. Now use the small box at the top (with the gray arrow pointing down next to it – see below) to navigate to the directory and folder you would like Word to use each time you want to insert an image. (i.e. add an attachment).

4. Now double-click on the folder that you want so that its address shows up in the folder name box near the bottom of the window – e.g. C:/Aevidence as below.

5. Now just hit the OK button and then when you are back at the Options window, hit the OK button again. Now Word will default to that folder each time you seek to add an attachment.