USPTO Scheduled System Downtime for Maintenance on November 7

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has scheduled routine maintenance impacting multiple systems on Saturday, November 7, 2020. The maintenance will occur from 12:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

During this maintenance window, user access to various USPTO applications will be temporarily suspended. This includes systems utilized by patent customers for filing and managing patent applications.

The USPTO has advised affected applicants to refer to its "Filing Documents during an Outage" webpage for guidance on alternative filing methods during the downtime. This resource provides instructions to ensure continuity of patent application submissions despite the temporary unavailability of online systems.

Additionally, the USPTO noted that issues affecting remote employees during this maintenance period will be communicated through the agency’s internal system status platform.

The USPTO emphasized that the website is secure, indicated by the presence of a lock icon or "https://" in the URL, assuring users that sensitive information should only be shared on official, secure government websites.

Users planning to file patent documents or access USPTO systems on November 7 are encouraged to plan accordingly to avoid inconvenience caused by this scheduled maintenance.

The USPTO routinely performs such maintenance to ensure the reliability and security of its digital services, which are critical to the patent application process and intellectual property management.

For further updates or questions, users should consult the USPTO’s official website or contact USPTO support channels.

Official reference: View the original document.