The USPTO trademark filing system has certainly been and it is one of the world’s most advanced; probably the greatest so far. It was truly admirable already 20 years ago. One useful option that was available to professional filers and that would render the filing process very smooth, was the possibility to send the client/applicant a link, generated by the USPTO filing system, not only to obtain an electronic signature of the forms handled, but also to pay for the government filing fees when such a payment was necessary. Clients receiving such a link could perform payment of the required fees to the USPTO and complete the submission of the electronic document from their computer, wherever they were located in the world, simply with a debit or credit card of the main financial circuits today available. A wonderful solution that would avoid a lot of troubles.
For security and other reasons, the payment of the filing fees in the above-described manner is no longer possible unless the payer is first identity-verified through a company called ID.me (id.me is also the U.R.L. of such company). The verification through ID.me can be performed, of course, but seems not to be easy, especially for non-domestic filers which are in great number.
We hope that the USPTO will find a solution to this situation. We believe that, at the current state of the digital technology, the act of the payment of the filing fees could be set to be the final step of the filing process kept outside of the “looked circuit”, so to speak, of the USPTO trademark forms handling and filing system, accessible only by identity-verified people and professionals.
For more information about how to become identity-verified through ID.me and to actually verify your identity go here: https://help.id.me/hc/en-us/articles/1500007980422 .
We will continue to inform you on trademark topics for you to have a better management of your intellectual property. Stay tuned…
