[Patentcenter] fax receipt from Patent Office?

[Carl Oppedahl]

This is a very good point.  When we send faxes nowadays, we have two 
ways to do it:

  * Use a physical fax machine that is connected to an Analog Telephone
    Adapter that uses T.38 signaling to our VOIP service provider
    (called VOIP.ME).  We have programmed our inbound fax number into
    the physical fax machine so that it gets sent to the receiving fax
    machine (e.g. the USPTO).  The result has been that the USPTO server
    sends a fax receipt back to us by fax.
  * Go to the web site of VOIP service provider (called VOIP.ME) and
    upload a PDF or TIF file and type in the fax number to send the fax
    to, and what "caller ID" fax number we want to say it is from.  And
    we select from a drop-down list our inbound fax number that we have
    with our VOIP service provider.  The result has been that the USPTO
    server sends a fax receipt back to us by fax.

The thing is, the most recent time I did either of these things to send 
a fax to the USPTO Central Fax Number was maybe three months ago.  And 
as I say, I would not rule out the possibility that the "new ways of 
working" people in the CIO's office of the USPTO decided that they are 
smarter than everybody else and can swap out one fax service provider 
for another, assuming that we paying customers will never notice.

The responsible thing would, of course, have been to run the old one and 
the new one in parallel for some beta-test time period.

On 12/18/2023 4:14 PM, Patent Lawyer via Patentcenter wrote:
>
> The PTO used to send a fax acknowledgment to the fax number _from 
> which the incoming fax was received_.
>
> Maybe the PTO still does that.  But maybe that number (_from which the 
> incoming fax was received_) is probably a fax number of your web fax 
> company.
>
> So maybe the PTO sent an acknowledgment fax there.  Or maybe web 
> faxing does not provide a number to the recipient.  Or maybe the PTO 
> does not send acknowledgment faxes anymore.  But my guess is that your 
> acknowledgment fax went to your web fax company’s number.  Good luck.
>
> *From: *Patentcenter <patentcenter-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> on 
> behalf of Patentcenter Patentcenter <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Reply-To: *Patentcenter Patentcenter <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Date: *Monday, December 18, 2023 at 5:38 PM
> *To: *Patentcenter Patentcenter <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Cc: *Sandra L Etherton <sandra at ethertonlaw.com>
> *Subject: *[Patentcenter] fax receipt from Patent Office?
>
> I had to file a petition to pay a late maintenance fee _by fax_ today 
> since a) Patent Center didn’t have the right fees in “Calculate Fees” 
> and b) couldn’t file an ePetition because I wasn’t entered as POA in 
> the file and instead was submitting a new POA. I faxed to 571-273-8300 
> as suggested by EBC.
>
> I got a fax receipt from my webfax company that the fax went through 
> successfully, but I haven’t received a fax receipt from the Patent 
> Office. In the old days the PTO faxed-back a receipt almost 
> immediately. It’s been several hours now and no PTO receipt yet.
>
> Does the Patent Office still send fax acknowledgements that a fax was 
> received? If so, how long does it take?
>
> Sandra
>
> *______________________*
>
> *Sandra L Etherton*
>
> Registered U.S. Patent Attorney
>
> *ETHERTON LAW GROUP, LLC*
>
> tel: (602) 681-3331 | fax:  (602) 681-3339
>
> email: sandra at ethertonlaw.com <mailto:sandra at ethertonlaw.com>
>
> www.ethertonlaw.com
>
>
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