[Patentcenter] ID.me and Patent Center?

Wed May 22 13:22:51 EDT 2024

According to the ID.me help center, you can verify someone outside the US by making a video call with a Video Chat Agent: Verifying if you live outside of the United States - ID.me Help Center<https://help.id.me/hc/en-us/articles/4415907236375-Verifying-if-you-live-outside-of-the-United-States>

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>

From: Gerry J. Elman <gerry at elman.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2024 12:15 PM
To: For bug reports, feature requests, and tips and tricks about Patent Center. <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Richard Schafer <richard at schafer-ip.com>
Subject: RE: [Patentcenter] ID.me and Patent Center?

Help!   Has anyone discovered a way to get an assistant located in India accredited to log in with ID.me?   So far, it looks to me like ID.me is applicable only to people located in the United States.  What am I missing?

-Gerry          gerry at elman.com<mailto:gerry at elman.com>
Gerry J. Elman, Elman IP
6117 St James Pl, Denton, TX 76210
office ph. 610-892-9942    mobile 610-909-2468

-------- Original message --------
From: Richard Schafer via Patentcenter <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>>
Date: 5/22/24 11:17 AM (GMT-06:00)
To: "For bug reports, feature requests, and tips and tricks about Patent Center." <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>>
Cc: Richard Schafer <richard at schafer-ip.com<mailto:richard at schafer-ip.com>>
Subject: Re: [Patentcenter] ID.me and Patent Center?

I think it's somewhat simpler than that, Carl. The ID.me people seem to have landed contracts to provide user authentication services to local, state, and federal governments. The service is more than simply verifying that you're a real person once; ID.me provides login processing services using the digital ID provided to people as a result of the authentication But the PTO scrapped its old encrypted login software (whose name I've blocked out of my mind) before ID.me became available so Patent Center was designed with the "new" login processing software the PTO licensed for EFS and Private PAIR.

But when the PTO decided to require authentication and login processing for trademark practitioners, ID.me was available and apparently being urged as a standard within the federal government, so TEAS was updated to use ID.me for new people, even though somehow they managed to shoehorn in login processing for existing patent practitioners, too.

I'm betting that since then, the PTO has been working to try to wedge ID.me into Patent Center and in June they expect to have that ready. Once that happens, I wouldn't be surprised to see the PTO try to urge patent practitioners with pre-ID.me-based accounts to migrate to ID.me.

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>

From: Patentcenter <patentcenter-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentcenter-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com>> On Behalf Of Carl Oppedahl via Patentcenter
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2024 3:01 AM
To: users of Patentcenter <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>>
Cc: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com<mailto:carl at oppedahl.com>>
Subject: [Patentcenter] ID.me and Patent Center?

A banner item that recently got posted in Patent Center by the Patent Center developers says this:

ID.me is currently available in MyUSPTO.gov for Trademark filers only. Patent Center will be ready to support the ID.me verification process by the end of June, 2024.

I sort of can't figure out what the Patent Center developers are trying to say here. For one thing, I can't figure out why the Patent Center developers would post something in Patent Center that relates to trademark activity.

For a second thing, there is no such thing as "myUSPTO.gov".  There is no DNS entry for the domain name "myuspto.gov".  I guess they mean "my.uspto.gov".  Out of curiosity I surfed over to my.uspto.gov and saw this banner item that recently got posted by the my.uspto.gov developers:

ID.ME is available for Trademark filers only. Patents has not implemented the digital identity proofing process at USPTO.

I am sort of baffled in my effort to guess what the problem is for which these banner items are (supposedly) the solution.  Here is my best guess ...

It is true that on the trademark side, there had been some USPTO postings about how if you want to be able to do TEAS things, you have to prove you are a human being, except if you are already a registered patent practitioner, you get a pass on having to prove that you are a human being to be able to do TEAS things.  The TEAS developers never quite came out and said what is going on here, but I guess they figured if you are a registered patent practitioner, then at some time in the past you sort of proved you were already a human being.  I guess this is whole "prove you are a human being or we won't let you use TEAS any more" is part of the effort by the people in the Commissioner for Trademarks office to combat the trademark filings from a certain foreign country, that sort of thing.

But that does not quite explain what the problem is for which these banner items are (supposedly) the solution.  On the patent side, we do have this business of "sponsoring" a paralegal and only if the paralegal has been "sponsored" by a patent practitioner is the paralegal able to do stuff as a logged-in person in Patent Center.  If I recall correctly, one thing that happens when the registered practitioner does the clicking around to "sponsor" the paralegal is that the practitioner is required to certify that the paralegal is an actual human being.

Maybe what is going on is that the Commissioner for Patents office people have decided that they don't trust the registered practitioner to be telling the truth when they say that the paralegal that they are "sponsoring" really is a human being?  They want the paralegal to be forced to do the ID.me thing, so that the ID.me service provider has checked out the "really a human being" status of the paralegal?

Or maybe what has been going on is that patent-sponsored paralegals have been phoning up the EBC, begging to please be allowed to be put through the wringer that is ID.me?  They see the trademark-sponsored paralegals who get to have the honor and fun of being put through the ID.me wringer, and they feel left out?

Anyway, I am hoping somebody who is more plugged into this "sponsor-a-paralegal" stuff can shed some light on this.

Carl
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