The short answer is: It depends. Let’s look into possible scenarios as they relate to unpaid patent maintenance fees.
A Common Scenario for Unpaid Maintenance Fees
“Our US company recently received an offer from a European competitor to purchase a small portfolio of Patents related to a product line that we no longer manufacture. The due diligence team declared that the offer was bona fide. However, due diligence uncovered that accounting failed to pay the maintenance fee for one of the Patents, and the Patent expired nine months earlier. This expired Patent is critical to the sale of the Patent Portfolio. Is there anything we can do to save the sale of the portfolio?”
Failure to Pay Maintenance Fees, Expired Patents and Patent Reinstatement
If the delay in paying the maintenance fee is unintentional, a petition to reinstate the expired Patent may be accepted by the USPTO:
37 Code of Federal Regulations – Reinstatement of Expired Patents
37 C.F.R. 1.378, in part, reads:
(a) The Director may accept the payment of any maintenance fee due on a patent after expiration of the patent if, upon petition, the delay in payment of the maintenance fee is shown to the satisfaction of the Director to have been unintentional. If the Director accepts payment of the maintenance fee upon petition, the patent shall be considered as not having expired, but will be subject to the conditions set forth in 35 U.S.C. 41(c)(2).
(b) Any petition to accept an unintentionally delayed payment of a maintenance fee must include:
(1) The required maintenance fee set forth in § 1.20(e) through (g);
(2) The petition fee as set forth in § 1.17(m); and
(3) A statement that the delay in payment of the maintenance fee was unintentional. The Director may require additional information where there is a question whether the delay was unintentional.
In the “Common Scenario” example at the beginning of this post; provided the European buyer agreed to the sale, the expired Patent could be reinstated:
Expired Patents – Section 2590 of the USPTO Manual of Patent Examining Procedure
Section 2590 of the USPTO Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, in part, indicates:
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- If the delay in payment of the maintenance fee is unintentional, the USPTO may accept late payment of any maintenance fee filed after the 6-month grace period
- A Petition that the delay in payment of the maintenance fee was unintentional would not be proper when the Patentee becomes aware of an unintentional failure to timely pay the maintenance fee and then intentionally delays filing a petition for reinstatement of the Patent
- Petitions to accept unintentionally delayed payment of the maintenance fee in an expired patent, if expired for two years or less, can be processed digitally via the USPTO website
- After the Patent owner failed to pay the maintenance fee for more than two years, a petition to accept the unintentional delay in payment of the maintenance fee can be filed in the USPTO and may reinstate the Patent
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FAQ: Situations for Expired Patents and Reinstatement
- Your company opted to let the Patent expire for failure to pay the maintenance fee, and after 21 months, the company decided to pay the maintenance fee. Will this reinstate the Patent? Most likely – Yes.
- Your company opted to let the Patent expire for failure to pay the maintenance fee, and after 36 months, the company decided to pay the maintenance fee and reinstate the Patent. Will this work? Depending on the facts – Possibly.
- Your company did not pay two maintenance fees (NOTE: As a general rule, due times can be variable at 3 years, 7 years and 11 years in the USA and most international fees are due annually)? Can the patent be reinstated? No.
- Your company intentionally did not pay the maintenance fee for 3 years? Can you get the patent reinstated? Probably not.
- You are an individual who was made aware that your Patent had expired. Thereafter, you forwarded a money order to pay the required fees to the wrong address for the USPTO. Two years later, you learned that your Patent remained expired. Depending on the evidence presented to the USPTO, your Patent may be reinstated.
If you need legal assistance managing your maintenance fees, please contact Business Patent Law, PLLC. Business Patent Law, PLLC provides intellectual property and business counsel for businesses and companies.
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