An office action has been counted, but not sent yet
Official wording: Non-final action — counted, not mailed
The examiner has recorded a non-final office action internally. It has not been mailed to you yet, so your response clock has not started. When it is mailed, the status moves to 641 and the deadline begins.
This is the code people confuse
640 and 641 are one digit apart and mean very different things. 640 is counted. 641 is mailed. Only 641 starts your response period. Material that describes 640 as 'office action mailed' is wrong, and acting on that error either wastes your time or costs you the deadline.
What to do while it sits here
Nothing is required, but this is the moment to check that the correspondence email on your record is one you actually read. The office action is about to arrive there, and everything after depends on you seeing it.
What is coming
A refusal or a requirement. Most are answerable. The most common substantive one is likelihood of confusion with an existing mark; the most common procedural ones concern your specimen or the wording of your goods and services.
Confirm this against your own record
Status code descriptions are administered inside USPTO systems and published wording varies slightly between sources. Your file is the authority. Enter your serial number in TSDR to see your current status, every document filed, and any live deadline.
Open TSDRLooking this up for a client rather than for your own mark? We keep a network of licensed attorneys who review the cases that come through us. It is case-by-case paid work and a free listing — never a referral fee or a cut of anything.
What comes before and after
Status 630
Filed, and waiting in the queue
Status 638
An examining attorney now has your file
Status 641
Your non-final office action has been mailed
Status 602
Your application was abandoned for failure to respond
Status 680
The examiner cleared your mark
Status 700
Your mark is registered
Status 645
Your final refusal has been mailed