abandoned application
abandoned application. Patents & trademarks. An application removed from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office docket of pending applications because the applicant (or the applicant’s attorney or agent of record) filed an express notice of abandonment, failed to take appropriate action at some stage in the prosecution of a nonprovisional application within the time specified by the PTO rules (or because the statutory period expired for a provisional application), or failed to pay the issue fee. • Abandonment of a patent or trademark application does not automatically result in abandonment of the invention or the mark. Cf. ABANDONED INVENTION; ABANDONED MARK.