An office action is the examining attorney telling you why the application cannot register as filed. Since 3 December 2022 most carry a three-month response period, extendable once.
Read what kind it is first
Procedural issues — a disclaimer, a specification amendment, a clarified identification of goods — are usually resolved by agreeing. Arguing about a disclaimer rarely pays.
Substantive refusals are different. A Section 2(d) likelihood of confusion refusal or a 2(e) descriptiveness refusal goes to whether the mark can register at all, and needs argument rather than amendment.
Responding to a 2(d) refusal
The examiner has cited a prior mark. The response argues the DuPont factors: that the marks differ in appearance, sound, meaning or commercial impression; that the goods and services are unrelated; that the channels of trade do not overlap; that purchasers are sophisticated.
A consent agreement with the cited owner is often the most effective route and the most underused — it is evidence from the only party whose confusion matters.
Responding to a descriptiveness refusal
Either argue the mark is suggestive rather than descriptive — requiring imagination to connect it to the goods — or claim acquired distinctiveness under Section 2(f) with evidence of use, sales and recognition. Or amend to the Supplemental Register, which gives fewer rights but is a registration.
When the refusal is final
The options narrow to an appeal to the TTAB, a request for reconsideration, or both. The trap is assuming a request for reconsideration extends the time to appeal — it does not by itself, and running them in the wrong order can forfeit the appeal.
If the deadline has already passed
The application is abandoned and a petition to revive is due within two months of the notice of abandonment. That window is short, unextendable, and the clock starts at the notice rather than at the deadline you missed.