USPTO Launches Two New Online Fee Payment Tools
Guest Blog by Chief Financial Officer Tony Scardino
For several years, the USPTO has been making significant progress in modernizing its information technology (IT) infrastructure and tools for both employees and the public. Our financial tools are no exception, and I’m excited to announce that on April 9, the USPTO is launching two new online fee payment tools to the public: Financial Manager and the Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront. Watch the short video overviews of Financial Manager and the Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront.
These new tools incorporate feedback from customers that we received through outreach efforts, including interviews, surveys, and user design sessions. The result for users is increased efficiency, better information, and a workflow that is better streamlined to integrate with users’ business processes. Here are some of the tools’ new features:
- For the first time, customers will have streamlined uspto.gov accounts. To access Financial Manager, customers will easily create their own uspto.gov account. Then once signed in to their account, customers will also have access to advanced features in the Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront, like bulk file payments and a virtual shopping cart.
- In Financial Manager, customers will be able to store and manage their payment methods online; assign secure user permissions, allowing others to access and help manage payment methods; receive administrative email notifications; and create transaction reports, including monthly deposit account statements. Each individual in an organization will need their own uspto.gov account to access or help manage a stored payment method.
- In the Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront, customers will be able to retrieve patent maintenance fee information (including payment window dates for up to 10 patents at once); upload bulk files to pay any number of patent maintenance fees at once; check out more quickly using their stored payment methods; add fees to an online “shopping cart” and save them for payment later that day; receive an itemized receipt for each payment; and download a statement for each patent.
- In the months ahead, we’ll be expanding the stored payment methods feature to pay for other patent, trademark, and USPTO service fees.
Here are some additional changes to be aware of:
- These new tools will replace the current Office of Finance Online Shopping Page and Financial Profile. Once the new tools go live, the old web pages will no longer be available.
- Similarly, anyone attempting to pay a patent maintenance fee online will need to use the new Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront.
- Deposit accounts are “going green.” Deposit account holders will now manage all deposit account activities online using the new Financial Manager. Monthly statements are also going paperless. Deposit account holders will be able to access their statements online at any time in Financial Manager, and the USPTO will no longer be mailing paper statements.
- Finally, for deposit account holders with multiple users in their organization, each user must create their own uspto.gov account in order to be able to access the deposit account.
We will be working with our current customers to ensure a smooth transition to these new tools. This includes implementing a temporary transition period to allow customers to adjust to the new way of managing financial transactions and paying fees at the USPTO.
Customers currently using a deposit account or EFT to pay fees at the USPTO will still be able to do so by entering their current deposit account or EFT credentials (i.e. deposit account access code or EFT profile name and password) immediately after the release of Financial Manager. After the temporary transition period, customers will need to store and manage deposit accounts and/or EFTs in Financial Manager, and only users who have been granted “Fee Payer” permissions for the payment method will be able to use them for payment. The transition timeline will be posted on the Financial Manager page of the USPTO website when Financial Manager goes live. In the meantime, customers can refer to the Fee Payment Transition Resources section of the USPTO website to find additional information on the payment method migration.
We are very excited about bringing these new financial and fee payment tools to the public, and we’re confident that they will enhance our customers’ experience of doing business with the USPTO. If you have additional questions, please visit the FAQ page for Financial Manager, or the FAQ page for the Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront. You can also email us at [email protected]. We rely on customer feedback to drive our plans for future improvements.
Posted at 02:28PM Apr 07, 2016 in USPTO |