[Patentpractice] POA and correspondence/maintenance fee address change after issuance
Randall Svihla
rsvihla at nsiplaw.com
Fri Sep 26 16:20:39 UTC 2025
Hi, Katherine
You can't change the applicant after the patent has issued. Changing the applicant under 37 CFR 1.46(c)(2) requires you to file a new Application Data Sheet listing the new applicant, but you can't file a new ADS after the Issue Fee has been paid pursuant to 37 CFR 1.46(c)(1), which states as follows:
(c) Correcting and updating an application data sheet.
(1) Information in a previously submitted application data sheet, inventor’s oath or declaration under § 1.63, § 1.64 or § 1.67, or otherwise of record, may be corrected or updated until payment of the issue fee by a new application data sheet providing corrected or updated information, except that inventorship changes must comply with the requirements of § 1.48, foreign priority and domestic benefit information changes must comply with §§1.55 and 1.78, and correspondence address changes are governed by § 1.33(a).
Call the Office of Patent Legal Administration at 571-272-7701 and ask them what to do.
Best regards,
Randall S. Svihla
NSIP Law
Washington, D.C.
From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of David Boundy via Patentpractice
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2025 11:55 AM
To: Katherine Koenig <katherine at koenigipworks.com>
Cc: David Boundy <DavidBoundyEsq at gmail.com>; For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] POA and correspondence/maintenance fee address change after issuance
Did you record the inventor -> company assignment first?
Once you've done that, THEN you need --
-- change of applicant (that's the thing that's missing from your list above)
-- the other things in your list (you probably don't need "change of correspondence address" -- presumably the Power of Attorney is in favor of a customer number and the CN has a correspondence address)
Remember what "applicant" is under post-AIA law -- the one and only person that the PTO is to take orders from. The PTO's CYA has to be "we don't pay no attention to nobody else, just 'applicant.'". If you didn't change "applicant" then a Power of Attorney from the company looks like instructions from the far side of the moon.
I know the patent is issued, so "applicant" ceases to have any meaning. The party that matters is "assignee." But you're dealing with clerks. Just play the game under the clerks' rules. This is a case to just let the law go -- the stupidity has a zero-down-side work around.
On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 11:50 AM David Boundy <DavidBoundyEsq at gmail.com<mailto:DavidBoundyEsq at gmail.com>> wrote:
Did you record the inventor -> company assignment first?
Once you've done that, THEN you need --
-- change of applicant (that's the thing that's missing from your list above)
-- the other things in your list (you probably don't need "change of correspondence address" -- presumably the Power of Attorney is in favor of a customer number and the CN has a correspondence address)
Remember what "applicant" is under post-AIA law -- the one and only person that the PTO is to take orders from. The PTO's CYA has to be "we don't pay no attention to nobody else, just 'applicant.'". If you didn't change "applicant" then a Power of Attorney from the company looks like instructions from the far side of the moon.
On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 11:35 AM Katherine Koenig via Patentpractice <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:
Happy Friday everyone,
I’m hoping someone can give me a checklist of exactly which documents I need to file to have my customer number associated with an issued patent that my client has acquired (after issuance) so it’s visible in my Patent Center workbench and so I receive post-issuance communications.
Patent issued in name of individual --> individual assigned to my client, “Company” (after issuance) --> client asked me handle the case moving forward. Receiving maintenance fee correspondence is really all I need to accomplish, but I would also like to be listed as the attorney of record. I want to be able to search for this patent in my Patent Center workbench and have it appear, instead of requiring me to do a general search in Patent Center.
Below is the list of documents I filed, but they were rejected because the person attempting to chance the POA isn’t the applicant of record.
* POA (PTO/AIA81A) signed by Company
* Copy of the Assignment Notice of Recordation from individual --> Company
* 3.73 Statement (signed by me as representative)
* “Fee Address” Indication Form (PTO/AIA/47) (signed by me as representative)
* Change of Correspondence Address (Patent) (PTO/AIA/123) (signed by me as representative)
AAU sent me to the Maintenance Fee Branch, which sent me back to AAU. AAU first said I needed a Corrected ADS (wrong, patent had already issued) and then said I needed a certificate of correction (wrong, I don’t need to correct anything on the patent). Maintenance Fee Branch told me I need POA from the applicant (patentee) to change correspondence/maintenance fee addresses.
Was my mistake filing the POA and 3.73? Should I have just filed the AIA/47 and AIA/123? Timothy (and others), thank you for your advice about simply refiling the same documents I’d already filed (and maybe that’s what I’ll end up doing). I’d like to avoid this issue in the future by filing exactly what will be accepted so my clients don’t think I need early retirement 😊
Best regards,
Katherine
Dr. Katherine Koenig
Registered Patent Attorney
Koenig IP Works, PLLC
2208 Mariner Dr.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
(954) 903-1699
katherine at koenigipworks.com<mailto:katherine at koenigipworks.com>
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