Patent Center

(last modified: 11DECEMBER2020)

December 2020

A new application type is now available in Patent Center!  International Design Application (Hague) for filing through the USPTO as an office of indirect is now enabled for filing new and follow-on submissions.

(last modified: 11DECEMBER2020)

Third Party Preissuance Submissions under 37 CFR 1.290;  Prior Art Submissions into a Patent File under 37 CFR 1.501; Pre-Grant Publication under 37 CFR 1.211 to 1.221;   Petition for Revival of an Application based on Failure to Notify the Office of a Foreign or International Filing (37 CFR 1.137(f));  Petition for Revival of an Application for Continuity Purposes Only (37 CFR 1.137(a)); Petition to Correct Assignee After Payment of Issue Fee (37 CFR 3.81(b)); Petition to Accept Unintentional Delayed Payment of the Maintenance Fee (37 CFR 1.378(b))

• These application types are still in development at this time and will be available in an upcoming release
• Please continue to use EFS-Web to file these applications and submissions

Attorney Docket number search

• This will be available in a future release.
• Work around: please use the other search options currently available. If you are having difficulty searching for your content, please contact the EBC for help with the options available.

Single letter s-signature.

• It will be available in a future release.
• Work around: please continue to use the full name s-signature

Sort by patent number

• It will be available in a future release.
• Work around: please use the other sort options currently available. If you are having difficulty sorting your content, please contact the EBC for assistance.

Order Certified Copies

• It will be available in a future release
• Work around: please continue to use the links provided in Private Pair.

Update application address

• It will be available in a future release
• Work around: please continue to use Private Pair’s to update an application address or use the Change of Correspondence forms SB122/SB123. The Change of Correspondence forms can be sent via mail, facsimile (571-273-8300), or e-filed. Additionally a Request for Customer Number Upload Spreadsheet can be submitted via mail to the EBC for a single or multiple application numbers.

(last modified: 15January2021)

Some ePetitions are temporarily unavailable in Patent Center

• Please use EFS-Web to file the epetitions that are temporarily unavailable in Patent Center.
• The following petitions are temporarily unavailable:
  • Petition for Revival of an Abandoned Patent Application Abandoned Unintentionally (37 CFR 1.137(a)) (For Cases Abandoned After 1st Action and Prior to Notice of Allowance)
  • Petition to Accept Late Payment of Issue Fee - Unintentional Late Payment (37 CFR 1.137(a))

eTerminal disclaimer temporarily unavailable

• The eterminal disclaimer in Patent Center is temporarily unavailable.
• Please use EFS-Web to file eTerminal disclaimers.

Petition based on Age grant letter does not display in Firefox

• Please use the Chrome or Edge browser to file the Petition based on Age.
• If you use Firefox, the grant letter is not displayed on the receipt page as expected. You will receive a pop-up dialog to open or save the pdf document containing the submission receipt/grant letter document. You can also select "Save as" to download the receipt document on the receipt page.
• This issue will be corrected in a future release.

Supplemental Content

• Users are experiencing a delay in documents loading into the Supplemental content tab.
• We are aware of this issue and it will be fixed in a future release.

Ad-blocking software

• Some ad-blocking software may erroneously block parts of Patent Center. Although there are no ads in Patent Center, please whitelist uspto.gov in your ad-blocking software or disable it for best results.

(last modified: 19JANUARY2021)

RESOLVED: ePetitions now available in Patent Center

• The following ePetitions are now available
  • Request for Withdrawal as Attorney or Agent of Record (37 CFR 1.36)
  • Petition to withdraw from Issue after Payment of the Issue Fee (37 CFR 1.313(c)(1) or (2)) and (37 CFR 1.313(c)(3))
  • Petition to withdraw from Issue after Payment of the Issue Fee (37 CFR 1.313(c)(1) or (2)) and (37 CFR 1.313(c)(3) with assigned patent number)

(last modified: 15JANUARY2021)

RESOLVED: New Practitioner Support account (DECEMBER2020)

• New Practitioner Support users are currently unable to access Patent Center and other eCommerce systems until the next business day from when the account is created. Practitioner Support users who have current sponsorships will not be affected. If the user is unable to access Patent Center the next business day, please contact the EBC at 866-217-9197 or by email at EBC@uspto.gov. 

  •  RESOLVED: Direct sponsorship by an attorney is fixed, however sponsorship requests on behalf of an attorney still have a waiting period.  Please contact the EBC if you are unable to sign in by the next day.

RESOLVED: Customer Number (NOVEMBER2020)

• Users are unable to save a new customer number request due to duplicate registration numbers listed. In order to save the request, select the check box to the right of the registration number for the duplicate registration number and click Remove. Once the duplicate registration number is removed, the request can be saved.

RESOLVED: DOCX APP.TEXT (NOVEMBER2020)

RESOLVED: Receipt history (OCTOBER 2020)

• The Providing quick access to your last 40 submission receipts.

RESOLVED: Attorney docket number not displaying on fee payment page (OCTOBER 2020)

• Displaying the attorney document number on the fee payment page 

RESOLVED:  Missing Patent offices on ADS foreign priority dropdown (OCTOBER 2020)

• Displaying the attorney document number on the fee payment page 

RESOLVED:  Missing Patent offices on ADS foreign priority dropdown (OCTOBER 2020)

• Correcting the Patent office’s missing from the ADS foreign priority drop down list 

RESOLVED: Conversion problem with multi-part PDF documents created using Ricoh MP 6503 (OCTOBER 2020)

• Documents in the file wrapper appear truncated and rotated incorrectly
• Affected PDF documents: using the document split feature on a multi-part PDF document created with the Ricoh MP 65303 PDF producer (printer/scanner)

RESOLVED: A4 Page Size Warning for PDF documents (SEPTEMBER 2020)

• An incorrect page size warning is displayed for PDF documents with A4 page size: “The page size in the PDF is too large. The pages should be 8.5 x 11 or A4. If this PDF is submitted, the pages will be resized.”

RESOLVED: Training Mode Unavailable (SEPTEMBER 2020)

• Training Mode in Patent Center is currently now working properly.

RESOLVED: ePetition to Accept Delay Payment of Issue Fee (SEPTEMBER 2020)

• This ePetition is still in development at this time

RESOLVED: Corrected Web ADS (SEPTEMBER 2020)

• The Corrected Web ADS Inventors section is not working properly. 

RESOLVED: ePetition based on Age (JULY 2020)

• A menu item for ePetition based on Age appears on the top drop down menu and as a submission type on the ePetitions filing types, however this ePetition is still in development at this time.

RESOLVED: Web-based Issue Fee (Web 85B) (JULY 2020)

• Updating the correspondence and maintenance fee address using the web-85b is currently not available.

RESOLVED: Saved Submissions missing Date Saved and Date Created (JULY 2020)

• In-progress submissions that you save do not list the date saved and date created.

RESOLVED: Web ADS unsupported characters (JULY 2020)

• When entering application numbers on the Web ADS - foreign priority section, slashes and periods characters are not accepted. A PDF of the Web ADS is not generated.

RESOLVED: Payment Receipt Print and Save-as buttons are not working (JULY 2020)

• The payment receipt Print and Save as buttons are non-responsive.

RESOLVED: Reel Frame Numbers (MAY 2020)

• Reel frame numbers shown incorrectly