[Patentcenter] Web85b

[Carl Oppedahl]

Yes or you could fax it in, or take it to the in-person window at the 
Randolph building.

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.

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.

And yes, it is dumb and stupid for the system to refuse to let you do it.

I imagine the wrong logic that led to this problem was along the 
following lines.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

So this is another example of a function of EFS-Web that the Patent 
Center developers failed to bring forward into Patent Center.

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.

On 2/23/2024 5:07 PM, Richard Schafer via Patentcenter wrote:
>
> 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
>
> Best regards,
> *Richard A. Schafer | Schafer IP Law*
> P.O. Box 230081 | Houston, TX 77223
> M: 832.283.6564 | richard at schafer-ip.com <mailto:richard at schafer-ip.com>
>
>
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