[Patentcenter] eIF (Web 85B)- practitioner registration number omitted from IF transmittal

[Michael Nye]

My apologies for the additional email on the web-based 85b, but this one
actually appears to be a substantive risk to the filing, not just an
unwarranted error that can be ignored. And if this has already been
reported, then please double my apologies.

When following the eIF process, I reviewed the Issue Fee Transmittal Form
before hitting submit. My "Registration #" was not present: instead, only a
dash was present. The registration # is a required part of a practitioner's
S-Signature. 37 CFR 1.4(d)(2)(ii), and its omission should probably cause
the issue fee transmittal to be rejected as missing a valid signature.
Yikes.

I went back through the process and found that there was no way to edit the
blank registration number (it was grayed out). So my only option was to add
it between the virgules. Screenshot of the updated Issue Fee Transmittal
Form:

[image: image.png]

After submitting the eIF, I logged out and logged back in and did a test
eIF on another allowed application. This time, while the Registration
number box was still grayed out, my registration number was present.
Screenshot of the first page of the eIF process:
[image: image.png]
So this error is intermittent. Look out!

Also, as I believe Carl would observe, PatentCenter should NOT be advising
the user that the Registration number is optional. It would be for a pro se
inventor. But, unless I'm missing something, it is definitely not optional
for a practitioner.
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