USPTO Moving to New Authentication System for EFS-Web and Private PAIR

By Donald Zuhn --

On Monday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the implementation of a new authentication method for signing into the EFS-Web and Private PAIR.  According to the Office, the new method is safer and simpler, grants access to multiple USPTO systems with one consolidated sign-in, and eliminates the need to share credentials by providing practitioners and their support staff with their own USPTO.gov accounts.  The new method also helps to resolve browser compatibility issues, and will provide users with access to the EFS-Web and Private PAIR until the full release of Patent Center, which is scheduled to replace the EFS-Web and Private PAIR, in 2020.

The Office also announced the release of a migration tool, which allows existing PKI digital certificate holders to link their USPTO.gov accounts to their current PKI digital certificates.  To migrate an existing PKI digital certificate, users must have a USPTO.gov account.  Users who need to create a USPTO.gov account can do so by following the steps under the "Create a USPTO.gov Account" tab at the Office's authentication change webpage.  Once a USPTO.gov account has been created, users can follow the steps under the "Migrate your PKI Certificate" tab at the Office's authentication change webpage (or refer to the Guide for Migration) to link that account to their PKI certificate.  The Office notes that users should allow 1–2 business days after the migration steps are finished for the migration process to be completed.  Once the process is completed, users will be able to sign into the EFS-Web or Private PAIR using their USPTO.gov account.  Users should use the following new links to sign into the EFS-Web or Private PAIR using their USPRTO.gov accounts:

EFS-Web:
https://efs-my.uspto.gov/EFSWebUIRegistered/EFSWebRegistered

Private PAIR:
https://ppair-my.uspto.gov/pair/PrivatePair

Additional information regarding the new authentication process can be found in the Office's Patent Electronic System Access Document.  This resource includes information about USPTO.gov accounts; two-step authentication; signing in and signing out from USPTO systems; Patent Electronic Access roles for practitioners, support staff, and inventors; suspension of accounts; authorization; authentication steps; the sponsorship process (by which practitioners can grant or remove sponsorship for support staff individuals to work under their direction and control); and the Office's verification policy and identity proofing of sponsored support staff.  With respect to identity proofing, the Office notes that "[e]ach practitioner will be responsible for verifying the identity of the person using any sponsored support Staff account."

Practitioners are cautioned that migration to link USPTO.gov accounts to PKI certificates should be completed by the end of October, sponsorship of support staff should be completed by the end of November, and that PKI certificates are scheduled to be retired in December.  The Office notes that the Sponsorship Tool will not be available until November, so support staff should continue to sign into the EFS-Web and Private PAIR using PKI certificates until November.

Users requiting assistance to create a USPTO.gov account should call the USPTO Contact Center (UCC) at 800-786-9199.  Users requiring assistance with migration should contact the Patent Electronic Business Center at [email protected] or 866-217-9197.  The Office will also be offering several informational sessions on authentication changes; a schedule of upcoming sessions can be found at the "Information sessions" tab at the Office's authentication change webpage.  A list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the authentication change for EFS-Web and Private PAIR can be found here.

Comments

[EG]

Hey Don,

I don't know what your experience has been, but for me, this so-called Migration Tool provided by the USPTO has so far been an unmitigated fiasco. All I get is either that the page doesn’t exist or a 404 URL error message. I’m also not alone in having this happen. The USPTO group needs to get its act in gear to fix this glaring problem, or they’re going to have another PR disaster as happened when the EFS system was down for over a week not that long ago.

[Donald Zuhn]

EG:

My experience has been better than yours. I used the Migration Tool yesterday (when composing the above post), and today I was able to access the EFS-Web and PAIR using my USPTO.gov account.

Don

[EG]

Hey Don,

Glad to hear at least some of us are having success. But for those of us who are having trouble making this migration, we might benefit from understanding how you were able to make this migration successfully.

In my opinion, for at change of this magnitude for a critical USPTO system, it shouldn't be as difficult to do as it appears to some of us. For example,the fact that clicking on the Migration Tool link brings up a message that the web page appears not to exist says to me and others that the rollout of this change is significantly flawed. Simply telling us to call their help line if we're having trouble won't remedy the bigger issue that this rollout is not sufficiently "goof proof."

[Jeff Dixon]

Don,

I had a different problem than EG - clicking on the migration tool brought up an "Account Linking" page, which prompted me as follows: "To verify your account for eCommerce systems, please sign in with both your PKI Digital Certificate and your uspto.gov account", with a box on the left with a check mark indicating PKI certificate verified, and a box on the right with a sign-in button for my uspto.gov account. I clicked the sign-in button and signed in successfully, but a "continue" button in the lower right of the "Account Linking" page nonetheless remained grayed out / inactive.

I went to my MyUSPTO homepage and attempted to access Private PAIR, received a message that I was not authorized to access Private PAIR through my MyUSPTO account and prompted again to use the migration tool to link my accounts. I followed the migration tool link, and this time it indicated that I was signed in to both accounts and the "continue" button was activated.

I hope this explanation of the convoluted and seemingly redundant steps I had to take helps others who face a similar problem with migrating.

Jeff

[PB]

I also had problems with the migration tool. Called the EBC helpline and was told that you need to enable 2-factor authentication prior to using the migration tool. That seemed to do the trick.

[JS]

Jeff,

Just to let you know, I had the same issue. Turning on two-factor authentication was not enough for me.

I had to turn on the "I want to use the two-step authentication method every time I sign into MyUSPTO." checkbox in the "account" page (accessed under the dropdown menu where your name displays when logged in).

This forced the two-factor authentication in the user login portion of the migration tool and completed the process for me.

Good luck!