Breaking News: USPTO Restores EFS-Web and Private PAIR -- UPDATED

By Donald Zuhn --

Although the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has not yet made a formal announcement on the USPTO Systems Status and Availability webpage or the Office's Facebook and Twitter accounts, it appears that the Office has now restored access to the EFS-Web and Private Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system.  Patent Docs was able to access the EFS-Web as a registered eFiler -- although we were able to access a specific application via the EFS-Web, we did not test whether the system would actually accept an uploaded submission.  Patent Docs was also able to access a specific application using Private PAIR.  As of the time of this post, the Office did not appear to have restored Public PAIR.

UPDATED:  The USPTO Systems Status and Availability webpage was updated today to include the following information:

Systems are slowly being returned to service today with a goal of bringing all systems online and operational Monday morning, December 28.

Due to the extent of the damage to the systems that provide power to the USPTO's data center, we know that work will continue for the next several days.  Therefore, in order to keep systems protected and prevent damage, it is possible that some or all systems may need to be taken offline again.

We understand how critical these systems are for our customers, and our teams will continue to work around the clock to fully restore them as quickly as possible.  Based upon the results and the stability of our operations, we will keep deadline flexibility in mind and will closely monitor operations and evaluate whether any additional "holiday notices" similar to the one issued last week covering December 22 to 24 are needed.

Comments

[EG]

Don,

You are correct: it appears that the USPTO’s Private PAIR and EFS systems are now up, at least enough to retrieve documents from Private PAIR and to file applications through the EFS system.

With respect to filing applications through the EFS system, I would be very careful. It appears you won’t be able to save a proper pdf file of fee-info or the electronic filing receipt. Instead, I recommend printing each of these documents from the screen itself to save a record of such.

You may also have to pdf print (e.g., using PaperPort) or scan your filled in ADS form if you use the latest version (AIA 14, 11-15 version). When I tried to upload the filled ADS form using this latest version, I got both a Warning and Error message. You still get a Warning message if you pdf print or scan the filled ADS form, but at least you can complete the EFS filing.

Hope that helps.

[Donald Zuhn]

EG:

Thanks for the update.

Don

[EG]

Don,

You're most welcome. All of us in the patent prosecution business are "in the same boat" in navigating through this fiasco with the outage of these vital USPTO electronic systems. It's only fair that we all share our "collective experience" as these systems come back on-line as there are likely to be some other "snafus" that you only find out about by stumbling upon them.