| Fees and Payment of Money |
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(105) USPTO Enhances Deposit Account Transaction Security for
Paper Fee Payments and Authorizations
SUMMARY: In an effort to further secure deposit account transactions,
effective March 15, 2017, any charge to a deposit account appearing on a
paper filed by mail or facsimile transmission, or a PDF document filed in
EFS-Web (or other storefronts) must be signed by a person listed in the
United States Patent and Trademark Office's Financial Manager system as
having fee payer permissions. If the paper is signed by someone other than
a person the deposit account holder has given fee payer permissions in
Financial Manager, the authorization to charge fees will not be accepted
and the fee will not be considered paid.
BACKGROUND: In April of 2016 the United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) released a new fee payment system called Financial Manager for
managing deposit accounts. Financial Manager offers deposit account
customers improved security and payment documentation features when
compared to the former USPTO fee payment system. One aspect of the improved
security is that Financial Manager permits the administrator(s) of a
deposit account to assign permissions to specific individuals to perform
certain specific actions with respect to the deposit account. These listed
individuals are the only people who may perform the actions in Financial
Manager.
Every deposit account to be used for on-line fee payments must have a
profile set up in Financial Manager listing the individual registered users
(people) who may perform which actions in Financial Manager. These
individuals must be specified by their first and last names. As a result,
each USPTO deposit account customer must have a list of individuals with
"fee payer permission" in Financial Manager in order to enable these
individuals to make payments using the deposit account for on-line
payments, as well as payments authorized in PDF documents filed via EFS-Web
(or other USPTO storefronts) and in papers filed by mail or facsimile
transmission. This is of particular importance because only those
individuals the administrator has assigned fee payer permissions have
permission to authorize deposit account payments of patent or trademark
fees.
An individual who is not listed in Financial Manager as having fee payer
permissions will not be able to pay a fee by charging the deposit account,
regardless of whether the person has power of attorney in the application
or patent. Similarly, an individual who is not listed as having fee payer
permissions but who is part of a law firm or company associated with a
deposit account will not be permitted to charge fees to the deposit
account. These protections in Financial Manager not only give deposit
account customers the freedom to assign permissions in a manner that best
supports their business process, such as controlling who within an
organization has permission to pay fees, it also prevents unauthorized
individuals from outside an organization from charging a fee to a deposit
account.
Transition Period Expiring March 15, 2017: In an effort to make the
transition to the new Financial Manager payment system easier for its
customers, the USPTO provided a transition period during which deposit
account payment authorizations were accepted based on the old fee payment
system's authorized user list for the particular account. The number of
deposit account customers that have not established a complete fee payer
permissions list in Financial Manager has been reduced significantly as a
result of the outreach efforts of the USPTO's Office of Finance. As a
result, on March 15, 2017, the USPTO will discontinue this transition
period and will begin only accepting deposit account fee paper payments and
general authorizations signed by an individual with fee payer permission in
Financial Manager. Note that the individual's name appearing on the deposit
account fee paper needs to match the name in Financial Manager, and only a
person can have fee payer permission in Financial Manager. Identifying a
 Top of Notices (105) December 26, 2017 |
US PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE |
1445 CNOG 282 |
corporation, for example, as a fee payer will not give fee payer permission
to individuals employed or acting on behalf of the corporation. If the
person signing the deposit account fee paper or general authorization has
power of attorney in the application or patent but is not listed as having
fee payer permission in Financial Manager, the fee will not be accepted by
the USPTO.
Deposit account customers should also be aware of the possible
consequences beginning March 15, 2017, when the USPTO rejects any fee paper
payment or general authorization signed by someone without fee payer
permission in Financial Manager. For example, if the rejected payment is an
issue fee payment or an extension of time, the potential consequence is
that the patent application will become abandoned.
More information about Financial Manager and user permissions, including
fee payer permission, is available at www.uspto.gov/financialmanager.
Please direct any comments or inquiries regarding this notice to
Matthew Lee by e-mail at matthew.lee@uspto.gov.
ANTHONY P. SCARDINO
Chief Financial Officer
United States Patent and Trademark Office
[1435 OG 105]