How do weekends and holidays affect the date of abandonment?
Weekends and holidays can affect the date of abandonment. If the shortened statutory period expires on a weekend or federal holiday, the period for reply is extended to the next business day, and the date of abandonment would be the day after that.
MPEP 711.04(a) provides examples: “If a non-final Office action was mailed on May 17, 2019 and set a 3 month shortened statutory period that expired on Saturday, August 17, 2019. Monday, August 19, 2019 was a normal business day when the Office was open. In this situation, the date of abandonment is Tuesday, August 20, 2019.”
This extension is due to 35 U.S.C. 21 and 37 CFR 1.7. For more details, refer to MPEP § 710.05.
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