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<p>Yes or you could fax it in, or take it to the in-person window at
the Randolph building.</p>
<p>But back to your original point. I guess I did not realize that
this was a precondition for using the web-based 85B form click
path. Thank you for pointing this out.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The Issue Fee form 85B can only be signed by the applicant, or by
somebody with power of attorney, or by a patent practitioner not
of record who acts in a representative capacity.</p>
<p>And yes, it is dumb and stupid for the system to refuse to let
you do it.</p>
<p>I imagine the wrong logic that led to this problem was along the
following lines.</p>
<p>If we (the USPTO) allow somebody who does not have power of
attorney to commence the click path, then what might happen is
that later somebody at the USPTO would have to do actual work to
deal with the form having been signed by someone who was not a
proper signer.<br>
</p>
<p>A first thing that this "logic" fails to take into account is
that the person carrying out the click path might or might not be
the same person as the person signing the form.</p>
<p>Imagine for example a house pet might be the entity doing the
clicking, and then the house pet signals to the person who
actually does have power to sign, and that person walks up to the
keyboard and e-signs. And then that person walks away and the
house pet continues doing the clicking, and clicks "submit".</p>
<p>A second thing that this "logic" fails to take into account is
that even if you lack formal power of attorney, 37 CFR 1.33
expressly allows you to sign the 85B anyway. You are simply
"acting in a representative capacity" under Rule 33 and the USPTO
is not allowed to say "no" to the document.<br>
</p>
<p>In EFS-Web, it was possible to use the web-based 85B form for any
patent application that needed to have an Issue Fee paid,
regardless of whether you did or did not have power of attorney.</p>
<p>So this is another example of a function of EFS-Web that the
Patent Center developers failed to bring forward into Patent
Center.</p>
<p>It will also be recalled that in Patent Center, it refuses to
allow anybody (even if they do have power of attorney) to do the
web-based 85B if the application involved is a US designation of a
Hague case.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/23/2024 5:07 PM, Richard Schafer
via Patentcenter wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Goudy Old Style",serif">I
tried to pay an issue fee in an application today only to be
told I could not use the web-based 85b form because no power
of attorney had been filed. What’s the basis for that
restriction? Paying an issue fee is not one of those few
actions that require a POA, as far as I know. (Yes, I know I
should have filed a POA, but somehow that got overlooked in
this case.) I’ll submit the 85B the old-fashioned way in
Patent Center, but I can’t see why that should be required<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;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"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span style="color:#0563C1">richard@schafer-ip.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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