Beginning April 18, 2023, the USPTO will begin issuing electronic patent grants (eGrants) to patent recipients, which minimizes paper waste, potentially reduces patent pendency, and allows recipients to get their patent grant in PDF format on the day of issue.
Filing a new non provisional 111(a) application? Starting April 3, 2023, specification, claims and abstracts not filed in DOCX format will incur a non-DOCX surcharge of up to $400 for this filing type. See FY2020 Final Patent Fee Rule for more information.
Extended through June 30, 2023, exclusively in Patent Center, applicants have the option to upload a backup (auxiliary) PDF version of their application with their DOCX version. There are no fees associated with this auxiliary PDF. See the Federal Register notice for more information.
Attend a DOCX training webinar or visit the DOCX information page to learn more about filing in DOCX format.