| Fees, Deposit Accounts, Credit Cards, Refunds, etc. |
Referenced Items (72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93) |
(87) Customer Number Required in order to
Establish a Fee Address
When an application has been allowed, at the time of
issue fee payment, applicants may designate a fee address for
maintenance fee purposes (hereafter, fee address) by submitting a
"Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47; Rev 03-02 or more
recent) as an attachment to the Issue Fee Transmittal (PTOL-85B). If no
Customer Number was previously acquired from the Office for the address
being designated as the fee address, a Request for Customer Number form
(PTO/SB/125) should also be attached to the Issue Fee Transmittal
(PTOL-85B). If a fee address is established in an allowed
application or patent, the Office will send all maintenance fee
correspondence (such as maintenance fee reminder notices) to the fee
address; and the Office will send all other correspondence, to the
correspondence address of record.
Effective immediately, any designation of a fee address (at the time of
issue fee payment or afterwards) is required to be a Customer Number,
either an existing Customer Number or one created for this purpose.
Background - The Office's record-keeping database does not permit the
Office to establish a fee address without a Customer Number. Because of
this database requirement, if a specific address, by itself, was designated
as the fee address upon payment of the issue fee, or afterwards, the USPTO
had been sua sponte assigning a Customer Number to represent the designated
fee address. This practice caused confusion to some fee address requesters
who were surprised to find out that they had been assigned a new
Customer Number when no Customer Number was requested. To avoid such
confusion, the "Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47) has recently been
revised to only permit a fee address to be designated by a Customer Number.
Revised "Fee Address" Indication Form (PTO/SB/47; Rev 03-02 or more
recent) - The revised version of the "Fee Address" Indication form
(PTO/SB/47; Rev 03-02) has been posted on the USPTO website since March
2002. The March 2002 revision date is shown by the notation "(03-02)" in
the upper right-hand corner of the form, following the form number
(PTO/SB/47). Only a version of the "Fee Address" Indication form
(PTO/SB/47) showing a revision date of 03-02, or more recent, reflects the
requirement that a Customer Number be used to designate a fee address.
Versions of the "Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47) showing a
revision date earlier than 03-02 do not reflect this requirement, and are
outdated.
If a Customer Number was previously acquired from the Office for the
address being designated as the fee address, both the revised version
(showing a revision date of 03-02) and the outdated versions of the "Fee
Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47) provide a space for entering that
Customer Number to designate the fee address. The revised version of the
"Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47) differs from outdated versions of
the form insofar as how a fee address may be designated where no Customer
Number exists for that address. Outdated versions provide a space for
entering an address not represented by a Customer Number, whereas the
revised version provides no such space. Instead, where no Customer
Number exists for the address being designated as the fee address, the
revised version of the "Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47; Rev 03-02)
requires that the address be entered on an attached Request for Customer
Number form (PTO/SB/125), or equivalent form. Further, the revised
version of the "Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47; Rev 03-02)
contains instructions notifying fee address requesters that any fee address
must be designated by a Customer Number.
The revised version of the "Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47; Rev
03-02) is posted on the USPTO website at:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/sb0047.pdf. Also, the current version of the
 Top of Notices (87) December 29, 2009 |
US PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE |
1349 CNOG 407 |
Request for Customer Number form is available at:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/sb0125.pdf.
Non-conforming Fee Address Indications - Previously unprocessed "Fee
Address" Indication forms (PTO/SB/47), or equivalent forms, filed prior to
the publication date of this Notice are being returned by the Office to
the correspondence address of the relevant allowed application or
patent where the designated fee address is not already represented by a
Customer Number and where there is no request that a Customer Number be
used to represent the designated fee address. Together with any
returned "Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47), or
equivalent form, the Office shall provide an updated version of the
"Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47), a Request for Customer Number
form (PTO/SB/125), and instructions for establishing a fee address for the
subject application or patent.
After the publication date of this Notice, any fee address designation
will be considered by the Office to be a Customer Number regardless of
which version of the "Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47) is used.
Accordingly, "Fee Address" Indication forms (PTO/SB/47), or equivalent
forms, filed after the publication date of this Notice shall not be
returned by the Office for lack of any request that a Customer Number be
used to represent the designated fee address. The Office considers the
following factors to be sufficient to advise fee address requesters
that all fee addresses established at the Office will be represented by
a Customer Number: (1) the instant Notice; (2) the latest version of
the "Fee Address" Indication form (PTO/SB/47; Rev 03-02) containing
instructions notifying fee address requesters that any fee address must be
represented by a Customer Number; and (3) the bolded statement on currently
mailed Issue Fee Transmittals (PTOL-85B) that in order to establish a fee
address, "Use of a Customer Number is required."
Section 2540 of the Manual Of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP 2540)
shall be revised in accordance with this Notice.
Questions concerning the need for a Customer Number in order to
establish a Fee Address should be directed to Dave Scherbel, by telephone
at (703) 308-1272 or by e-mail at david.scherbel@uspto.gov.
Questions concerning a returned Fee Address Indication should be
directed to Gisele Jones, by telephone at (703) 308-9649, by
facsimile at (703) 308-6778, or by e-mail at gisele.jones@uspto.gov.
STEPHEN G. KUNIN
Deputy Commissioner for
Patent Examination Policy
[1261 OG 19]