The USPTO’s new all-electronic processing initiative has imposed a new requirement on all applicants and registrants to update their application and registration records to provide an email address for correspondence with the office.
That requirement is effective as of 5 October 2019 and applies even for applications that already identify an appointed attorney for USPTO communications. The email address will appear in the USPTO’s public records and will not be private. Accordingly, our recommendation is to provide a general contact email address rather than one associated with a particular person to avoid the necessity of frequent updates/revisions with internal changes of personnel. And, of course, to make sure that general email address is monitored for incoming communications.