By Christopher P. Singer —

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a press release on July 21, announcing the start of the e-Office Action program following a successful pilot version of the program.  The e-Office Action program allows participating patent applicants to receive e-mail notifications of office communications, rather than receiving the usual paper notifications by regular mail.  Once an office communication is available for viewing and downloading in Private PAIR, an e-mail notice is sent to participants in the e-Office action program.

According to USPTO's Acting Director, John Doll, the e-Office Action pilot program has, "dramatically reduced paper processing and mailing costs [and] expedited notification allowing applicants to take full advantage of their time period for reply to an office action."  The USPTO will also consider enacting several enhancements to the e-Office Action system once the IT infrastructure allows for such enhancement modifications.

Participation in the e-Office Action program is optional and is available to any registered attorney or agent, or pro se inventor, prosecuting a patent application associated with a customer number.  Participants can also opt-out of the e-Office Action program at any time and return to receiving office communications through regular mail.  The e-Office Action program covers provisional applications and non-provisional applications including utility, plant, design, and reissue applications and national stage applications.  Excluded from the program are international applications, reexamination proceedings, and interference proceedings.  More information and a description of the full requirements needed to participate in the e-Office Action program are available at http://www.uspto.gov/eoa.  Specific questions or suggestions about the program should be directed to the Electronic Business Center (EBC) Customer Service Center at 866-217-9197 (toll-free) or 571-272-4100 or by e-mail to ebc@uspto.gov.