Note: If you have failed to pay your maintenance fee by the end of the second six month window, the Patent will be deemed expired. It is possible to reinstate a Patent, in some situations, however you should consult a Patent Attorney for details.
Note also that there are a lot of fraudulent companies out there that may send you notices about maintenance fees. These companies may have names that sound like official organizations or arms of the U.S. Government. The USPTO generally does NOT send maintenance fee reminders and does NOT solicit money for maintenance fees.
You can pay the fees online yourself, without the need for an Attorney. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how to do so, in a step-by-step fashion. If you are NOT computer literate or comfortable using the Internet, I do not suggest you attempt this. If you have any questions, consult a Patent Attorney for more advice. If you do not complete this process properly, your maintenance fee may not be paid and your Patent will expire. You should check after paying the fee to insure that the system shows it as being paid. You should also print out and keep a copy of the maintenance fee STATEMENT as set forth below. The author assumes no responsibility for those who fail to pay their maintenance fees properly.
In the following examples, I will use data from my Beerbrella Patent. Obviously, you will need to insert your own Patent Data where I have illustrated mine. If you can't figure that out, please proceed no further.
To get started, you will need the following items:
1. Your Patent Number: This is the seven digit number of your Patent as issued. For Beerbrella, the Patent Number is 6,637,447.
2. Your Application Number: This is an eight-digit number, usually in the format of of a two-digit "series" number and then a six digit serial number. For Beerbrella, this number is 09/981,966. The Patent Office has played games with this number, calling it the "Application Control Number" but in the past, we referred to it as the Serial Number. Note also that on older Patents, the Series Number is not printed.
In order to find the series code that is based upon the application filing date, use the following table:
| Application Filing Date | ||
From | To | Series Code |
| 01/01/93 | 12/31/97 | 08 |
| 01/01/98 | 12/03/01 | 09 |
| 12/04/01 | 12/1/04 | 10 |
| 12/2/04 | Present | 11 |
3. A Valid Credit Card: You will need a credit card with an available balance sufficient to pay the fees due. What are the fees? They increase exponentially for each successive payment. They are also adjusted every year, so I cannot print out an accurate list here.
The current (as of 10/09) USPTO FEE SHEET can be found at:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee2009january01_2009may01.htm
Or you can log into www.uspto.gov, click on "site index" and then look under "Fees, USPTO"
Please note that all of these links are effective as of the date of this writing. The USPTO website changes from time to time (a new Beta version is presently in testing, I hate it). I cannot be responsible for dead links or changes to locations of pages.
You should make sure you pay the proper maintenance fee at the proper entity status (Small or Large Entity). Failure to do so could invalidate your Patent during litigation. Consult an Attorney if you are not sure if you are small or large entity.
Whether you are a small or large entity is not a bright line test. If you are a solo inventor who has never licensed or assigned his Patent, then yes, chances are, you are a small entity. However, if you have licensed your Patent to a larger company, or if your company does not qualify as a "small business" under the Small Business Administration standards, then you may be a large entity. Again, if you do not understand whether you are a small or large entity, consult a Patent Attorney for more information.
Once you have your Patent Number, Serial Number, and a Credit Card, you are ready to begin.
To start, access the USPTO Electronic Business center. You can access this from the www.uspto.gov website by clicking on the"eBusiness" link at the top tool bar. Again, the site may change over time, so this information is only accurate as of the date of this article (10/09).
The direct link, as of this date, is:
http://www.uspto.gov/ebc/indexebc.html
From that page, you can access the "Revenue and Account Managing" link, or go directly to:
https://ramps.uspto.gov/eram/
From that page, click on "Pay or Look Up Patent Maintenance Fees" or go directly to:
https://ramps.uspto.gov/eram/patentMaintFees.do
Again, you can probably go directly to this last link, I provide the intermediary links and page descriptions in case the USPTO changes its site in the future.
Once on the USPTO Maintenance Fee page, you should see a screen similar to the following:
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Patent Maintenance Fees
- Please enter both a patent number and its corresponding application number to do the following:
-
- Click on ‘Retrieve Fees to Pay’ to pay a maintenance fee.
- Click on 'Get Bibliographic Data' to obtain patent bibliographic data.
- Click on ‘View Payment Windows’ to determine when maintenance fees are due.
- Select the applicable year (4, 8 or 12) from the drop-down list box next to ‘Payment Window’ and click 'View Statement' to print a statement showing receipt of a maintenance fee payment.
| Patent Number (exclude special characters; e.g. commas): | ||
| Application Number (must be 8 numeric digits - see NOTE below): | ||
| for Payment Window: | ||
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Enter your Patent Number and Application Number (Serial Number) where indicated, leaving out any commas or slashes. Note that if you enter either number wrong, the system will kick back an error message. By requiring both the Serial Number AND the Patent Number, the system makes it nearly impossible to pay the fees for the wrong Patent.
There are FOUR LINKS you can click on at this point. The VIEW PAYMENT WINDOWS link will display when your patent maintenance fees are due. It is a good idea to click on this link and then print out the windows for future reference. If you use a calendar program or the like, enter the dates in that to remind you in the future.
The page display may look something like this:
| Maintenance Fees Window Dates | 10/07/2009 10:50 AM EDT |
| Patent Number: 7012552 | Application Number: 09982948 |
4th Year | 8th Year | 12th Year | |
| Open Date | 03/16/2009 | 03/14/2013 | 03/14/2017 |
| Surcharge Date | 09/15/2009 | 09/17/2013 | 09/15/2017 |
| Close Date | 03/15/2010 | 03/14/2014 | 03/14/2018 |
Again, this is sample data for someone else's Patent. Sadly, I have to keep reiterating that, as in this day and age, some idiot will enter that person's Patent data and then wonder why their maintenance fee wasn't paid. We live in a country where you can get sued for serving hot coffee. No wonder few want to give out real advice or instructions such as these.
Going back to the main page, click on "RETRIEVE FEES TO PAY" link. You may see a display such as the following, again, this is data for someone else's Patent:
| Patent Maintenance Fees | 10/07/2009 10:52 AM EDT | ||||
| Patent Number: | 7012552 | Application Number: | 09982948 | ||
| Issue Date: | 03/14/2006 | Filing Date: | 10/22/2001 | ||
| Window Opens: | 03/14/2013 | Surcharge Date: | 09/17/2013 | ||
| Window Closes: | 03/14/2014 | Payment Year: | |||
| Entity Status: | LARGE | ||||
| Customer Number: | 000000 | ||||
| Street Address: | MARSH, FISCHMANN & BREYFOGLE LLP | ||||
| City: | Denver | ||||
| State: | CO | ||||
| Zip Code: | 80237 | ||||
| Phone Number: | (303) 770-0051 | ||||
| Currently there are no fees due. | |||||
If any fees ARE due, you will see a link to PAY FEES NOW. Follow that link to pay your maintenance fee.
Be sure to check the box for MAINTENANCE FEE STATEMENT so that the system will generate the STATEMENT for you. If you forget to do this, you can go back later on and access the statement from the links above.
Click on PAY BY CREDIT CARD and enter your data where indicated. If you are comfortable paying bills online by credit card, this should be no problem.
I hope to update this article at a later date with actual maintenance fee payment data showing a fee being paid. As this is a simple procedure, many clients choose to do this online themselves and avoid my fees. Others engage an annuity company such as Computer Patents Annuities (CPA) to docket and pay the maintenance fees.
Note that I do not guarantee to remind clients of maintenance fees when they are due. I send a notice with each Patent to clients and the Patents themselves have the maintenance fee obligations spelled out on the inside cover. Some folks ask why I do not remind clients of maintenance fees. The answer is simple: It is an 11-plus year obligation, and over that time period, clients move, change address and can be hard to find. Oftentimes, when I remind a client of a maintenance fee, they say "thank you" and pay the fee themselves.
If I assume responsibility for docketing these fees and fail to remind a client, I could get sued. But if the client does not pay me for assuming this responsibility, there is no corresponding benefit to assuming the risk. Assuming an open-ended risk for no money makes no sense. If you want reminders, contract with Computer Patent Annuities and they will, for a fee, remind you of payment due dates and make payments on your behalf.
Or look at it another way - when you bought your house, did you expect your Real Estate Attorney to send you yearly reminders to pay your property taxes so you would not lose the house? Of course not.
See my article on maintenance fees for more information on docketing the due dates.
