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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif">I love the customer-focused attitude of the PTO.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif">On January 11, the PTO announced that Assignment Center would replace EPAS and ETAS on January 22, 2024. But what do I see today on the PTO status page?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#1B1B1B">Electronic Patent Assignments System (EPAS) and Electronic Trademark Assignments System (ETAS) Maintenance</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#1B1B1B"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#1B1B1B">The USPTO Certified Copy and Assignments (CC&A) Product team will replace the EPAS and ETAS systems with IPAS (Assignment Center), <b>from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. on Friday, January
19 ET.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#1B1B1B">During the maintenance period and after, the EPAS and ETAS products will not be available. Please use the new product at: <a href="https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color:#005EA2">https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov</span></b></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif">So apparently they’ve moved the date again, this time in a way that eliminates the ability to record assignments nearly all day Friday, January 19. After all, we couldn’t
expect the PTO’s IT staff to work over the weekend, could we?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN">Best regards,<br>
<b>Richard A. Schafer | Schafer IP Law</b></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN">P.O. Box 230081 | Houston, TX 77223<br>
M: 832.283.6564 | </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif;mso-ligatures:none"><a href="mailto:richard@schafer-ip.com"><span style="color:#0563C1">richard@schafer-ip.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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