USPTO Systems Status and Availability

Monday Oct 07, 2013

Credit Card Processing, EFS-Web and TESS Technical Problems

Credit Card Processing is Unavailable

USPTO is currently experiencing intermittent problems with online credit card payment processing. Please submit payment using an alternative payment method, such as:

Patents

  • by attaching a fee transmittal form (e.g., PTO/SB/17) with deposit account authorization in EFS-Web;
  • by faxing in a credit card authorization form PTO-2038 to the USPTO Central Fax 571-273-8300;
  • or by sending in a credit card authorization form PTO-2038 through Express Mail from the United States Postal Services (USPS) in accordance with 37 CFR 1.10.

Facsimile submission of the basic national fee for national stage under 35 U.S.C. 371 is not accepted. Submissions that require successful online payment, such as ePetitions and Pre-grant publication submissions, are unavailable at this time.

If you have any questions, contact the Patent EBC by phone at 866-217-9197 or by email at ebc@uspto.gov

Trademarks

Customers with an established deposit account or EFT account are still able to pay the required fees via those accounts. In addition, forms that do not require a fee payment can still be filed.

If your deadline is today and the document requiring a fee payment cannot be filed electronically, you must use an alternative method of filing. Please visit the TEAS Outage page for information concerning Trademark alternative filing methods.

If you have any questions, contact the TEAS Team by email at TEAS@uspto.gov.

EFS-Web Technical Problems

EFS-Web filers may experience intermittent slowness or unscheduled outages. If you are unable to access EFS-Web, please clear the browser cache, close your browser, and try again. USPTO is aware of the issue and working to address it.

EFS-Web Contingency is available to accept new applications: http://www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/contingency.jsp

TESS Technical Problems

The Free Form search screen is not currently supporting the “multiple search” function in the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS). The “multiple search” issue is being addressed by staff at the USPTO. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.