[Patentpractice] (i) USPTO fax not working and (ii) question about faxing a 'wrong' fee-code + credit card details

[Randall Svihla]

Hi, Bill

Did you select "Request for Reissue" on the "Post grant" drop-down menu on the blue task bar on the Patent Center main page?

Best regards,

Randall S. Svihla
NSIP Law
Washington, D.C.


From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of William Ahmed via Patentpractice
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2025 3:36 PM
To: For Patent Practitioners. This Is Not for Laypersons To Seek Legal Advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: William Ahmed <ahmed.william at ymail.com>
Subject: [Patentpractice] (i) USPTO fax not working and (ii) question about faxing a 'wrong' fee-code + credit card details

Dear All,
About 5 weeks ago, we faxed an office action response to
1-571-273-8300

5 weeks later, the USPTO has still not posted this response to the file-wrapper [we ended up subsequently e-filing the same OA response to avoid extension fees].

OUR PROBLEM -- we recently filed multiple reissue applications. Patent center did NOT properly read the ADS due to IT issues [they picked up a lot of ADS data but not all of it].
Therefore, Patent center did NOT allow us to pay the reissue filing/search/examination fees, which have different fee-codes for a 'basic utility non-provisional'.
We do not have a deposit account. The ADS is OK, so I assume a human will process the ADS in the upcoming weeks/months and will enter this into the system as a reissue application.

We need to pay fees BEFORE the January 19 fee-increase.

FIRST QUESTION -- is there a better fax number than 1-571-273-8300 [we pay maintenance fees to their fax and this is always handled correctly]

SECOND QUESTION -- what happens if fax staff receives our credit-card fee payment, and processes it next week BEFORE the USPTO mails the official filing receipt.
As of today, the USPTO thinks this is a 'basic utility filing' rather than a reissue filing.

Will the USPTO credit card staff they take the money from my cc and post those fee reissue codes to the file, assuming the 'regular USPTO staff' will work things out?

Or will they refuse to take the money, causing me to be stuck with higher filing fees since I will only be able to pay after January 19, 2025.
Even though the reissue fees are increasing 'only' by 8% on January 19, over multiple reissue applications, this is significant.

Please advise.

Many thanks,
Bill

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