General Deposit Account Number on Electronic Acknowledgement Receipts

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Patent Alert

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Wrong General Deposit Account Number Displayed on Electronic Acknowledgement Receipts

Due to an integration issue between EFS-Web and the USPTO’s new payment system, electronic Acknowledgement Receipts for EFS-Web submissions between June 2, 2016 – September 17, 2016, may display the wrong general deposit account number for fee pre-authorization(s).

To address this issue, the USPTO is generating corrected acknowledgement receipts that display updated general deposit account information to replace the previously generated acknowledgement receipts that have the wrong deposit account number in the respective application’s Image File Wrapper (IFW). By March 2017, the corrected receipts will be visible in Private PAIR with the document description of “EFS Acknowledgment Receipt (Corrected)” (doc code: N417.CORR). Therefore, it is not necessary for applicants to request a corrected Acknowledgement Receipt. 

EFS-Web submissions are impacted if they meet ALL of the following criteria:

  • The EFS-Web submission was submitted between June 2, 2016 – September 17, 2016;
  • A general deposit account was applied to authorize the USPTO to charge any missing fees;
  • Payment was processed using the new payment system, Financial Manager; and
  • Payment method for online processing was different than the general deposit account number, i.e., (1) You paid with credit/debit card or EFT and applied a general deposit account, or (2) You paid with a deposit account and used a different deposit account for pre-authorization.

If you received an adverse action as a result of this error, please contact the business unit that sent the action. If you have questions, please contact the EBC (Patent Electronic Business Center) at 1-866-217-9197, Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. - midnight ET, or by email.