[Patentcenter] fax receipt from Patent Office?

[Sandra L Etherton]

Yet another reason we use credit cards instead of a deposit account. Much better from a cash management standpoint, among other reasons.

 

 

 

From: Dan Feigelson [mailto:djf at iliplaw.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 3, 2024 11:05 PM
To: For bug reports, feature requests, and tips and tricks about Patent Center. <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Sandra L Etherton <sandra at ethertonlaw.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentcenter] fax receipt from Patent Office?

 

  <https://gcfagjf.r.af.d.sendibt2.com/tr/op/V8Uk_hMCe3Fv-HQPOfpTlLV8VI4u5XtQvFA6WC5V3FtgmjsL4JMtwORmmOApeA1nDluNcF0dIuVIo3NCVNHmnGl2iJi3vqk6kBBpf1ZY1X94Hgo_9ohmv52eFfcD6yvHXsOcdFm0C904B9PZ48z1O3ajE4pHQXIA85rbl8FTSm111OVCuJ6iG-YdPNuZxszLjjYMKDM7oFTF9o3FaOv6fQ> 

I wouldn't worry about the PTO losing money on interest. As Carl has noted many times, it forces people to grant it interest-free loans in the form of deposit accounts, which are the only way of paying certain fees and must maintain a $1000 balance to avoid the PTO deducting $25 at the end of each month. So either the PTO is collecting the nominal interest rate on the deposit (which can be substantially larger than $1000), or it collects interest (from the user) in excess of 2.5% per month. If that's not a racket I don't know what is. 


 

On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 2:52 AM Sandra L Etherton via Patentcenter <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com <mailto:patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com> > wrote:

An update from Dec 18 fax event: 

 

Several people emailed me outside of this listserve about whether they regularly got a faxback receipts from the PTO. Some said yes; some said no. Thank you all for your input.

 

I never did get a faxback receipt from the Patent Office, but the credit card charge went through for the fees about 48 hours after I faxed it in.* As Carl said, follow the money! The new POA and petition have not been uploaded, though, and the patent still shows as expired for failing to timely pay the maintenance fee.

 

*I suspect there’s damage to the public and PTO because fees were not deposited timely due to Patent Center not accepting e-filing for this. Instead, the fees were charged two days later than they could have been. I’m no cash management guru, but I assume the PTO gets paid interest on its deposits. Hypothetically, with simple 3% interest on $1640 fee for 2 days, the Patent Office lost ~$0.25 in interest on my submission. That adds up if fees for many submissions aren’t being deposited as quickly as they had been when EFS was live.

 

Sandra

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