Frequently asked questions about the Sponsorship Tool

Yes, you must be sponsored by each practitioner for whom you will be conducting business on USPTO.gov..

Sponsoring practitioners can remove their support staff, or the support staff can remove themselves from each sponsoring practitioner.

Each practitioner needs their own PKI certificate and USPTO.gov account.  A practitioner cannot sponsor another attorney.

Currently there is no limit to the number of support staff members that a registered practitioner can sponsor.

50 support staff members can be sponsored in a single request.

Yes, once a support staff user is sponsored by a practitioner, they can request that additional users be sponsored by the same practitioner.  The practitioner will need to approve these requests.

The sponsoring attorney can remove sponsorship, or the departing support staff can leave the sponsorship of the practitioner.

No, only practitioners can sponsor other users.

Basic information about the sponsorship process is provided in the Patent Electronic System Access Document.