Office Action Research: Search Office Actions by Refusal Type, Examiner, and Outcome
Updated October 12, 2026
Office Action Research lets you search real USPTO office action records and switch between research tools from one workspace. The page header reads USPTO Research: <tab> — "USPTO Research: Search Cases" on the default tab — and changes as you switch tabs.
Go directly to /oa-research.
The page shell — header and tab row — is visible on every plan. The tab content is available on Professional and Max plans; on other plans the tabs show a static sample behind an upgrade prompt.
What You Can Do
- Search office action records by mark, owner, or serial number
- Search the full text of office actions
- Filter by refusal type, §(2d) argument hooks, examiner, outcome, Nice class, response status, prosecution round, and date
- Sort results by relevance, date, or effectiveness
- Select cases to export to Excel, compare side by side, or run a multi-case strategy analysis
- Switch to Coexistence, Crowded Field, Disclaimers, Fame, ID Manual, and Lead Feed tools from the same page
Tabs
The page has a tab row under the header:
- Search Cases — the default tab
- Coexistence — marked Beta
- Crowded Field — marked Beta
- Disclaimers
- Fame
- ID Manual
- Lead Feed — marked Beta and Add-on, shown only when the feature is enabled
When TTAB research is enabled for your account, a TTAB research tab also appears in the row.
Search Cases
This is the default tab. With no tab parameter in the URL, /oa-research opens here. Use it to search office action records with the page-level search bar and the filter sidebar.
Coexistence
The Coexistence tab is a standalone §(2d) evidence tool, marked Beta. It helps you find pairs of similar marks owned by different parties that already coexist on the register — evidence the goods are not related. You can start from your own application's serial (it pulls the examiner's §(2d) citations), compare two serials directly, or describe the goods as free text, then download a filing-ready exhibit bundle.
Crowded Field
The Crowded Field tab, marked Beta, lets you research crowded fields — classes or goods areas where many similar marks already coexist on the register.
Disclaimers
The Disclaimers tab shows how often a word is disclaimed, with the marks behind the number.
Fame
The Fame tab lets you check brand fame.
ID Manual
The ID Manual tab lets you search the USPTO ID Manual for pre-approved goods and services identifications. Each entry shows a "Used in" count, and clicking through opens a detail page at /oa-research/id-manual/:termId listing the trademark applications that used that exact identification — sorted by most recent filing, filterable by live or dead status.
Lead Feed
Lead Feed appears only when enabled. It is a paid add-on, marked Beta and Add-on. See Leads for the full guide.
Search Modes
The main search bar has a mode toggle on the right (shown on medium and larger screens). It switches the search between two modes:
Cases
When Cases is selected, the placeholder reads:
Search marks, owners, or serial numbers...
Use this mode to find office action records by trademark, owner, or serial number.
OA Text
When OA Text is selected, the placeholder reads:
Search OA text... e.g., doctrine of foreign equivalents
Use this mode to search the wording inside office actions.
Accounts with case matching enabled also see a third mode, Goods/Services. Its placeholder reads Add a G&S term..., a Match search terms control switches between All and Any term matching, and a Find Similar Cases button appears next to the search bar.
Filters
The Search Cases sidebar groups filters into these sections:
| Section | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Prosecution Rounds | Toggle Show all rounds to include every OA round per case, instead of the latest round only |
| Response Analysis | Toggle Analyzed response available to restrict results to cases whose office action response has been parsed into winning-argument detail |
| Refusal Type | Filter by §2(d), §2(e) and its subsections, and other substantive grounds, examiner requirements, and administrative or advisory grounds. When a §2(d) refusal is selected, §(2d) Argument Hooks appear so you can drill into the specific argument the examiner made |
| Outcome | Registered, Supplemental Register, Abandoned, Pending |
| Response | Response filed, No response yet |
| Nice Classes | Individual numbered classes drawn from the current results, with an Any / All toggle to control whether a case must match any or all selected classes |
| Examining Attorney | Multi-select list with a Search examiners... field. Each examiner appears as one row, with every spelling of their name matched behind it |
| OA Type | Non-Final, Final, Post-Registration, Statement of Use / ITU, Procedural |
Each refusal type row also has an exclude toggle (the ban icon) that leaves that refusal type out of the results instead of selecting it.
When more than one refusal type or argument hook is selected, an Any / All toggle controls whether a case must match any or all of them.
On smaller screens, tap Filters to open the filter panel in a drawer.
Sorting
The sort dropdown above the results offers:
- By Relevance
- By Date (Newest)
- By Effectiveness
Date Filtering
The OA Date control above the results sets a date range. When a range is active, it appears as a filter pill you can remove, and an active date is included in the analysis context for any strategy analysis you run.
Selecting and Acting on Cases
Each result card has a checkbox. Check the boxes next to cases you want to work with, and a bulk action bar appears:
- Export — download the selected cases to an Excel file
- Compare — open up to 5 selected cases side by side on the comparison page
- Analyze — run a strategy analysis on 2–10 selected cases
Running a Strategy Analysis
Check the boxes next to the cases you want to compare, then click Analyze Strategy (you need between 2 and 10 selected cases). The analysis runs in a modal and is not stored — use the download button in the modal to keep a copy before you close it.
Case Detail
Click any result card — or its mark name — to open the case at /oa-research/:serialNumber. The serial number on a card opens the trademark's own page instead.
When the Office Action Decoder is enabled for your account, the case link opens the Office Action page for that letter instead: the letter, the filed response, the outcome, and the analyzed arguments live in that page's History, and a Research breadcrumb returns to the search. When the Decoder is off, the case detail page below is what opens.
The detail page shows:
- The mark, owner, serial number, outcome, and days to registration
- A Draft Response Using This Strategy button that opens the OA drafting tool with the case pre-filled
- A round navigator for multi-round prosecutions
- Side-by-side Office Action and Response text, with links to the original USPTO documents
- Winning Arguments and Losing Arguments cards with effectiveness scores
- Cited Marks from the office action
- A Prosecution Timeline of case events
- A Similar Cases tab that shows related office action records
On other plans, the case page shows the serial number and an upgrade prompt over a static sample; the full content is available on Professional and Max.
URL Behavior
Tab and filter state live in the URL, so you can bookmark or share a view:
/oa-researchopens Search Cases/oa-research?tab=coexistenceopens Coexistence/oa-research?tab=crowdedopens Crowded Field/oa-research?tab=disclaimersopens Disclaimers/oa-research?tab=fameopens Fame/oa-research?tab=idmanualopens ID Manual/oa-research?tab=leadsopens Lead Feed (only when enabled)
Legacy ?tab=precedent and ?tab=strategy links fall back to Search Cases.
Tips
- Use OA Text mode to find office actions that cite a specific doctrine, such as "doctrine of foreign equivalents"
- Narrow by Examining Attorney to study how a particular examiner handles a refusal type
- Combine a Refusal Type with a §(2d) Argument Hook to find cases on the exact argument you are answering
- Select 2–10 related cases and run a strategy analysis to compare what worked
- Use Export to pull a spreadsheet of cases matching your current filters
Related Features
- Leads — find unrepresented office action applicants (paid add-on)
- AI Office Action Response Drafting — generate an attorney-ready response draft
Related Articles
How the Las Vegas Jacks Locked Down Their Name a Year Before Anyone Complained
October 12, 2026
Refusals 101, Part 2: Section 2(d) — The Register's Biggest Fight
September 23, 2026
Zhang keeps MEN WITH THE POT registration because both cases rested on the same facts
October 15, 2026