By Donald Zuhn —

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced this morning that it has now restored its fax line and is once again able to receive faxed documents.  The announcement was made on the Office's Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Despite the restoration of its fax line, the Office will still consider each day from Tuesday, December 22, 2015, through Thursday, December 24, 2015, to be a "Federal holiday within the District of Columbia" under 35 U.S.C. § 21 and 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.6, 1.7, 1.9, 2.2(d), 2.195, and 2.196.  As a result, the Office will consider any action or fee due between December 22 and December 24 as timely if the action is taken, or the fee is paid, on the next succeeding business day on which the USPTO is open (see 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.7(a) and 2.196).  According to the Office, actions that are taken or fees that are paid on the next succeeding business day on which the USPTO is open will be considered timely for the purposes of, for example, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051(b), 1058, 1059, 1062(b), 1063, 1064, and 1126(d), or 35 U.S.C. §§ 119, 120, 133, and 151.  Because Friday, December 25 is a Federal holiday, the next succeeding business day would currently be Monday, December 28, 2015 (provided, of course, that the Office can restore its remaining systems by that date).  The Office also noted that it would issue a subsequent notice as needed if its systems are not fully operational by Monday, December 28, 2015.

Patent Docs will continue to monitor and report on the USPTO systems shutdown through the holiday weekend.

UPDATED:  Some commentators have questioned the Office's authority to consider December 22-24, 2015 to be Federal holidays (see, e.g., Comment 6 in response to Patently-O's coverage of the USPTO power outage and systems shutdown, as well as the comment here).

UPDATED:  The comment posted in response to Patently-O's coverage of the USPTO power outage and systems shutdown has now been posted here.