Q: What does this mean in regards to a trademark: Status - Abandoned-Failure To Respond Or Late Response
Can people trademark phrases? If so, does this mean no one else but them are allowed to use these phrases to print items on such as shirts, etc?
A:
IF you are talking about a federal registration with the USPTO, then an indication of abandonment for failure to respond usually means that an office action was issued and not responded to during the time for response. An office action is correspondence from the PTO raising a problem of some sort with the application. Usually, you have six months to respond to the office action to address the problems, though the response deadline can be cut down dramatically in some cases. Some problems are easy to address, others very difficult. Failure to respond at all results in an abandonment of the application.
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