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How your Office Action deadline is calculated

The reply period runs from the mailing date. How the three-month and two-month periods work, what extensions buy, and the six-month wall.

The reply period runs from the mailing date printed on the Office Action. An action on the merits normally sets three months; a restriction requirement or an Ex parte Quayle action normally sets two. Extensions of time can be bought in one-month steps under 37 C.F.R. 1.136(a) by paying the fee, and no extension can carry a reply past six months from the mailing date — that limit comes from 35 U.S.C. 133 and cannot be extended by any fee or petition. If the last day falls on a weekend or a federal holiday in the District of Columbia, a reply filed on the next business day is timely.

When exactly is this due, and how much trouble am I in?

Take the mailing date on the front page, add three months for an ordinary action on the merits, and that is the printed date. Then note that the real last-resort date is six months from mailing, and that the gap between those two is buyable in one-month steps for a fee.

Use the calculator below for your own dates. It shows the printed date, every extension date, the six-month wall, and the rules it applied.

Office Action deadline calculator

Most actions on the merits print three months. Restriction-only and Quayle actions usually print two.

Calculated in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or stored.

How the arithmetic works

Periods are counted in calendar months from the mailing date, so three months from 12 March is 12 June.

When the corresponding day does not exist in the later month, the period ends on the last day of that month: three months from 30 November ends 28 February, or 29 February in a leap year.

If the end date falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a federal holiday in the District of Columbia, a reply filed on the next business day is timely under 37 C.F.R. 1.7(a).

Extensions under 1.136(a) are bought rather than requested: pay the fee and the period is extended, in whole months.

Nothing moves a reply past six months from the mailing date.

The final-action exception

After a final Office Action, replying within two months can make the effective period depend on when the examiner mails the advisory action, under MPEP 706.07(f). Filing at month two and a half rather than month one can leave you with an advisory action and no usable time. If your action says FINAL, treat the two-month point as the date that matters.

Counted from

The mailing date printed on the action

Action on the merits

Three months

Restriction or Quayle action

Two months

Extensions

One-month steps for a fee, 37 C.F.R. 1.136(a)

Absolute limit

Six months from mailing, 35 U.S.C. 133

Weekend and holiday rule

37 C.F.R. 1.7(a)

Not sure which kind of action you have?

The reply period depends on the type. Upload the PDF and we will read the type and the date out of it.

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Questions people ask

From the mailing date printed on the Office Action. Delivery delays do not extend it, which is why applicants who monitor correspondence electronically have more usable time than those who wait for post.

Not by extension. Six months from the mailing date is statutory under 35 U.S.C. 133. After that the application is abandoned, and the only route back is a petition to revive under 37 C.F.R. 1.137.

It depends on the length of the extension and on your entity status, and the amounts change. Check the current USPTO fee schedule rather than any figure quoted on a website.

Yes, if it is filed electronically before midnight US Eastern time on that day. Applicants outside the United States should note that this is earlier than it sounds in their own time zone.

Where this comes from

Every statement of law or procedure on this page traces to a primary source you can check yourself.

Last reviewed August 30, 2026

If this was not quite your situation

Office Action deadline calculator

Enter the mailing date and the action type to get the reply period, every extension date, and the six-month statutory limit.

Your Office Action says FINAL

What a final Office Action restricts, the practical deadline hidden in MPEP 706.07(f), and the realistic options: after-final reply, RCE or appeal.

You missed the Office Action deadline

What abandonment means, when a petition to revive under 37 CFR 1.137 is available, and what to do in the first hour.

The examiner is making you choose between inventions

What a restriction or election requirement means, the two-month reply period, and why electing with traverse preserves your position.