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

[Andrea R. Jacobson]

In our experience, it's not uncommon for faxed and mailed items to take a while to be processed. I assume that fewer resources are available for that work at the PTO these days given the reliance on e-filing, so the longer processing is not a surprise to me.

I would call the AAU and see if they can be off assistance with nudging things along on your cases or provide some guidance on getting your payment processed in prior to the fee increase.


Andrea R. Jacobson (she/her )  |  Senior Litigation Paralegal  |  McGarry Bair PC
Direct (616) 742-3538  |  arj at mcgarrybair.com<mailto:arj at mcgarrybair.com>

From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2025 4:00 PM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] (i) USPTO fax not working and (ii) question about faxing a 'wrong' fee-code + credit card details


This is extremely well-plowed ground.  It looks like you have not had an opportunity review my many blog postings on this subject, including https://blog.oppedahl.com/sluggishness-of-uspto-workflow-for-inbound-faxes/ .

It is well established by now that the people at the USPTO whose job includes:

  *   looking at received faxes, and
  *   looking at received paper mail, and
  *   looking at stuff that has been hand-carried to the USPTO

are failing to do their jobs diligently.

We have for example a host of Powers of Attorney that the USPTO received from us by mail on October 2, 2024 and they did not show up in IFW until just a couple of weeks ago.

We have for example a host of Powers of Attorney that the USPTO received from us at the Central Fax Number on September 27, 2024 and they did not show up in IFW until just a couple of weeks ago.




On 1/15/2025 1:35 PM, William Ahmed via Patentpractice wrote:
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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