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Patent It Yourself - PDF Archive

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ChaPter 3 | DOCUMENTATION and the PPA | 73<br />

of everything, preparing several mail forms, a check or<br />

credit card authorization, and a receipt postcard, going<br />

to the post office to use Express Mail (recommended),<br />

paying the Express Mail fee, taking the risk that your<br />

application may be lost in the mails, and waiting several<br />

weeks to get your postcard back. From the above it will be<br />

obvious that EFS-Web also has many advantages. You can<br />

(1) file an application anytime and from anywhere that has<br />

Internet access, (2) obtain instant confirmation of receipt<br />

of documents and a Serial Number and Filing Date from<br />

the PTO, (3) send an application to the PTO without having<br />

to go to the post office to pay for and get an Express Mail<br />

receipt or having to wait for a postcard receipt, and (4) file<br />

an application without having to prepare an application<br />

transmittal, a fee transmittal, receipt postcard, or check or<br />

Credit Card Payment Form (CCPF).<br />

I assume that you’ve prepared the Cover Letter and PPA<br />

(Drawings, and Specification (optionally including Claims<br />

and Abstract)) as instructed above. You don’t have to prepare<br />

and/or file a Fee Transmittal, Fee Payment, or check (or<br />

CCPF) as you do these online as part of the EFS-Web process.<br />

Become a Registered eFiler (If Time Permits)<br />

If you can wait several weeks to file, I recommend you<br />

become a registered eFiler. You’ll have to deal with red<br />

tape, including filling out a form to obtain a customer<br />

number, sending a notarized certificate to the PTO,<br />

obtaining access codes, and calling the PTO to confirm,<br />

but as a registered eFiler you’ll be able to track your<br />

application’s progress and file additional documents<br />

or corrections. To register go to www.uspto.gov/ebc/<br />

index.html, click Register Now, and follow the detailed<br />

instructions. If you can’t wait several weeks, you can use<br />

EFS-Web to file an application as an unregistered eFiler<br />

and register later.<br />

To file your PPA electronically (whether you’re a<br />

registered eFiler or not), follow the following steps:<br />

• Convert Your Application to <strong>PDF</strong> Format: Convert all<br />

documents of the application (Cover Letter and PPA<br />

(Drawings, Specification, including any Claims and<br />

Abstract)), to <strong>PDF</strong> documents in your computer. There<br />

are free software programs such as Cute<strong>PDF</strong> that will<br />

enable you to convert word processing documents<br />

and drawings to <strong>PDF</strong> format. (Alternatively you can<br />

use a scanner to scan the documents directly to <strong>PDF</strong><br />

files. Some scanners, such as the Canon LiDE series,<br />

come with software that enables you to scan directly<br />

to <strong>PDF</strong> format. <strong>It</strong>’s easiest if you scan each document<br />

to a separate one-or-more-page <strong>PDF</strong> file and give it a<br />

descriptive name, for example, CoverLetter.pdf, Dwgs.<br />

pdf, and Spec.pdf. Set the scan to black-and-white at<br />

a resolution of 300 DPI for good clarity. Put all of the<br />

<strong>PDF</strong> application computer files into a separate <strong>PDF</strong><br />

Application Holding Folder with a suitable name (for<br />

example, Deraillieur PPA <strong>PDF</strong>s).<br />

• Prepare a <strong>PDF</strong> Data Sheet: If you haven’t done so<br />

already as instructed above, download a fillable<br />

EFS Application Data Sheet (PTO Form SB/14)<br />

from the PTO’s site. Open the SB/14 form, check<br />

Highlight required fields, and fill them out. The form<br />

is mostly straightforward. If there is more than one<br />

inventor (Applicant), click “Add” after “Applicant<br />

Information” to add another Applicant section. In<br />

the Correspondence Information section, if you have<br />

a PTO Customer Number enter it in the block, but if<br />

not check “An address is being provided …” to open<br />

the address-entry lines. (Even if you’re not a registered<br />

eFiler you can obtain a Customer Number, which<br />

will take a few days but will save you from having<br />

to type your address each time.) Don’t enter your<br />

email address unless you want to correspond with the<br />

PTO by email. Leave the Publication Information,<br />

Representative Information, Domestic Benefit . . .,<br />

and Foreign Priority sections blank because PPAs are<br />

not published and you’re filing pro se (no attorney),<br />

and you can’t claim benefit of any earlier domestic or<br />

foreign applications. Leave the Assignee section blank<br />

unless you are assigning (legally transferring) the<br />

application to another entity. You can sign the form<br />

on the computer using an S-signature (see above).<br />

Leave the attorney’s Registration Number blank. The<br />

program will automatically fill in the header blanks.<br />

Then, save the completed form using a suitable name,<br />

such as ADS.pdf, in your <strong>PDF</strong> Application Holding<br />

Folder with your other <strong>PDF</strong> application forms.<br />

• Sign On: Go to www.uspto.gov/ebc/index.html. If<br />

you haven’t registered as an eFiler, click on EFS-Web<br />

Unregistered eFilers and fill in your name and email<br />

and the type of application (Provisional) and click<br />

Continue. If you have registered, click on EFS-Web<br />

Registered eFilers. Then fill in your Digital Certificate<br />

and Password, which you already have. You can<br />

recover the Digital Certificate by browsing to Program<br />

Files/USPTO in your computer and opening the<br />

file with your name and an .epf suffix, for example,<br />

John Smith.epf. Click Authenticate and then certify<br />

your identity, select New application, and the type of<br />

application, and click Continue. If you get stuck at any

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