USPTO launches “Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront”

In April 2016 the United States Patent and Trademark Office will launch “Financial Manager” and the “Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront”, its newest online fee payment tools. These changes improve the way to view and pay patent maintenance fees online. “We’re committed to providing an efficient and reliable online fee payment experience.” USPTO says.

The two new tools will have a positive impact for all patent applicants. You’ll be able to have access to your transaction history, an enhanced search, centralized data and more changes to make things easier and quicker such as stored payment method and itemized receipts.

Dr. Meyer-Dulheuer & Partners LLP will give you a brief summary of the Financial Manager and the Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront.

Financial Manager

USPTO’s launch Financial Manager is a new, easy to use online fee payment management system. It will allow you to:

• Store and manage electronic payment methods, including credit/debit cards, deposit accounts, and EFT accounts so that you don’t have to enter detailed information for each transaction,
• Assign permissions allowing Financial Manager users to access, use, and/or manage your stored payment methods, and
• Create and export a variety of reports in Excel, PDF, or CSV, including recent transaction activity and monthly statements.

Financial Manager will be released in phases. The first release will introduce the following features:

Transaction History

The current Financial Profile system will be replaced by the reporting features offered in Financial Manager. You’ll be able to use Financial Manager to generate reports on a stored payment method and monitor your payment activity.

Pay with Stored Payment Method

At first, the ability to pay fees with a stored payment method will only be available to customers using the new Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront. Shortly after the launch of Financial Manager, other “storefronts” (e.g. EFS-Web, TEAS, etc.) will start offering this new feature.

Shopping Cart

A new shopping cart will be available to customers using the new Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront. The USPTO will be updating many of its storefronts, which will also connect to the shopping cart. Learn more on USPTO’s Online Fee Payment Tools FAQs page.

VIDEO: Introducting the Financial Manager

All informations about the Financial Manager are available here.

Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront

The Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront will offer these enhanced features:

Enhanced Search

You’ll be able to look up maintenance fee information for up to ten patents at one time, making it faster and easier to find and pay maintenance fees.

Centralized Data

Bibliographic information, payment window dates, previous statements, and current fees due will display on a single user-friendly page.

Itemized Receipts

We’ll provide an itemized receipt on the payment confirmation page that you can print or download for your records.

VIDEO: Introducing the Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront

All informations about the Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront are available here.

Source: USPTO Press Release // Homepage