Patent Center FAQs

You will need your USPTO.gov account, password, and one-time pin.
For information on creating a USPTO.gov account, go to MyUSPTO account creation. 
For step-by-step instructions on how to become a registered user, go to the Getting Started - New Users page. From the www.uspto.gov page, select Find it Fast and Patent Center for patent filing.

The Patent Electronic Business Center (EBC) is available to answer questions regarding how to access, file, and view applications in Patent Center. They can be reached by phone at 866-217-9197 between 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight, Eastern Time, Monday through Friday or by email at EBC@uspto.gov. Additional information can be located on the EBC webpage.

To comply with NIST Special Publication 800-63B: Digital Identity Guidelines for all federal information systems, Patent Center must terminate user sessions after 30 minutes of inactivity. However, users will receive an alert after 25 minutes of inactivity and will be prompted with option to extend their session for an additional 30 minutes.

Please contact the Patent Electronic Business Center (EBC) to report any issues. They can be reached by phone at 866-217-9197 between 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight, Eastern Time, Monday through Friday or by email at EBC@uspto.gov. Additional information can be located on the EBC webpage.

Currently Practitioner Support can prepare Web 85b submissions, but will need the Practitioner's signature to submit. In accordance with MPEP 37 CFR 1.4(d)(4), only registered patent practitioners and pro se inventors may sign correspondence. These include ePetitions, eTerminal Disclaimer, micro-entity certification forms, and other web forms, which allow for signing by S-signature. As such, Practitioner Support users are unable to enter the s-signature on behalf of patent practitioners.

As a learning tool, Patent Center has a training mode where users can anonymously go through the steps of uploading documents for various filing types without actually submitting the application for processing.

Yes, Patent Center will have single interface for filing and managing patent applications. EFS-Web is planned to retire mid to late 2023.

Public PAIR retired July 31, 2022.

Private PAIR is planned to retire mid to late 2023.

You can use Patent Examination Data System (PEDS) to search and download large sets of data. For more information, go to the Patent Examination Data System.

Saved submissions will now be stored for 14 days, which is an increase from the previous 7 days in EFS-Web.

Applications can be saved on all pages throughout the submission process in Patent Center.

Up to 60 documents can be uploaded into Patent Center in a single submission.

When applicants are required to submit drawings in patent applications, black and white line drawings as prescribed in 37 CFR 1.84(a)(1) are required except as follows. Pursuant to 37 CFR 1.84(a)(2), color drawings are permitted in design applications filed under 35 U.S.C. chapter 16. As stated in 37 CFR 1.84(a)(2), color drawings are not ordinarily permitted in utility patent applications, and, as stated in 37 CFR 1.84(b), photographs are not ordinarily permitted in utility or design patent applications, but the USPTO will accept photographs in utility or design patent applications or color drawings in utility patent applications, if they are the only practicable medium for illustrating the claimed subject matter. The photographs and color drawings submitted in utility or design patent applications must be of sufficient quality such that all details in the photographs and drawings are reproducible in black and white in the printed patent. See Legal Framework for Patent Electronic System, section K, for additional information.

For PDF the maximum file size is 25MB, for DOCX the maximum size is 10MB and for .zip and .txt files there is a maximum of 50MB.

As a registered user, you can upload PDF, .docx, .txt and .zip files into Patent Center. 

Yes, multiple documents can be selected by either opening the directory or dragging and dropping documents into the upload field.

Yes, a single document that contains a specification, claims, and abstract can be filed in Patent Center.

Any program that will create and save in Office Open XML (ex: Microsoft Word 2007 or higher, Google Docs, Office Online, LibreOffice, etc.).

Specifications, claims, abstracts and drawings are the only application parts that can be submitted in .docx.

No, .docx documents can only be filed in new utility nonprovisional and provisional applications.

More information about using Patent Center can be found on the Patent Center reference guide page. More information specifically about docx filing can be found on the File patent applications with docx documents page.

Yes, In the first calculate fees screen, enter the previous amount paid for the EOT under the application related information section, and verify on the next page under Patent Extension of Time Fees.

The first calculate fee screen is to capture the attributes relevant to the applicant's submission and the second screen is to choose the desired fees.

Patent Center provides the Submission Receipt and Payment Receipt as two separate documents. This benefits the applicants by providing an immediate Submission Receipt upon submission and another receipt when payment is made. This fixes a problem where applicants are not able to tell that their submission had been received by the Office when the fees system is unavailable or slow to respond.

Yes, the sponsorship is associated to the USPTO.gov account and will be available in both EFS-Web and Patent Center.

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

Attorneys will need the USPTO.gov account email address that belongs to their support staff.

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

Each practitioner needs their own USPTO.gov account. A practitioner cannot sponsor another practitioner.

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.

No, only practitioners can sponsor other users.

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

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

Yes, applications will continue to be associated based on customer numbers.

Yes, you will be able to use the same USPTO.gov account to access Patent Center, PAIR, EFS-Web, and Financial Manager.

No, each user must log in using their own USPTO.gov account as a part of the one-user-one-account model.

Any code generator that meets the RFC 6238 (TOTP) standard. Please contact the Patent Electronic Business Center at ebc@uspto.gov or 866-217-9197, Monday - Friday, 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. ET for further assistance.

Yes, however, our focus at this time is to have EFS-Web and PAIR parity for Patent Center. API plans are exclusive to Patent Center and scheduled for after 2020.

Yes, support staff must have their own USPTO.gov account in order to be sponsored by a practitioner.

No. The practitioner account will be able to sponsor support staff (who will have their own account) to do work on their behalf. Once the support staff have been sponsored, they will be able to access the customer numbers associated with the practitioner account.

Yes, access to customer numbers is based on sponsorships by practitioners. As long as the support staff has access to a common customer number, they will be able to view the saved data from different sign-in accounts.

No, support staff are able to suggest other support staff to be sponsored by a practitioner. The practitioner must sign in to approve and grant sponsorship to the support staff.

The practitioner is able to sponsor multiple support staff at once. Additionally, any sponsored support staff is able to request sponsorships for other support staff so that the practitioner can quickly approve all requested sponsorships at once.

For practitioners, the process remains the same through the management of customer numbers, including removing the practitioner’s registration number from the appropriate customer numbers as needed. In addition, the practitioner can use the Sponsorship Tool to remove sponsorship for any support staff whom they have sponsored. Support staff can use the Sponsorship Tool to remove sponsorships between themselves and sponsoring practitioners as well.