Author: Carl

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Who charges how much for foreign payments?

As readers of this blog are by now well aware, my most recent obsession area of inquiry has been the sending and receiving of international bank wires.  More or less by accident I have stumbled upon smart ways to receive international bank wires.  As I describe in this blog article, more or less by accident our situation is that for our patent firm, we now receive our incoming foreign bank wires free of charge through Afex.com, and for my personal bank account, I receive my incoming foreign bank wires free of charge because the bank is USAA.

As for the foreign sender of funds, if the foreign sender of money to our patent firm happens to be a customer of Afex.com, they can send money to us and they will likewise not have to pay any fee (other than perhaps a currency conversion fee).

But how about sending bank wires?  Who charges more and who charges less for sending bank wires to foreign countries?  Here is a specific example of what it would cost to send about ten thousand dollars to Switzerland by any of three different providers.  I find the price differences to be striking. Continue reading “Who charges how much for foreign payments?”

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Yet another smart way to receive international bank wires

If you are going to have someone send you funds by means of an international bank wire, what instructions should you give to them?  Thirty years ago my firm did what I suppose most firms do.  We went to our bank we asked our bank what to tell the sender.  Our bank very promptly and cheerfully provided detailed “incoming bank wire instructions” including a Swift code and an ABA routing number.  We then dutifully provided this information to all of our foreign associates for use in paying us for the work that we do for them.

It turns out that this is approximately the stupidest thing to do.

Our patent firm has changed banks from time to time over the years.  But what has not changed is that each bank has charged us some amount of money for each incoming bank wire.  Our most recent bank (Wells Fargo) usually charges us at least $16 for each incoming foreign bank wire, or as much as $33 if it feels the wire required “repair” (whatever that means).  I cringe now to realize that during these decades our banks over the years have charged us many, many thousands of dollars in bank fees for our incoming foreign bank wires.

And the same is true for incoming foreign bank wires to my personal bank account.

Imagine how stupid I feel to have discovered only in recent days that there are common-sense ways to receive foreign bank wires that do not incur bank fees, for businesses and for personal accounts.  Continue reading “Yet another smart way to receive international bank wires”

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Surface Phenomena

I’m going to reveal a practice tip that I had been keeping to myself for the past thirty years of patent practice.  The practice tip is to be alert to the possibility that some important thing about a client’s invention may turn on “surface phenomena”.  My main point being that as far as I can tell, nobody actually knows how most surface phenomena work, and so you can use the phrase in some client/inventor discussions, and the client/inventor will think you are very smart regardless of whether you are actually very smart. Continue reading “Surface Phenomena”

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Yet another foreign wire transfer service

click to go to AFEX web site

Recently I blogged about Western Union Edge, a service for foreign wire transfers.  Alert reader Andrew Berks commented that he uses AFEX.  So I decided to open an account with this service provider.  Having used the service now for a short while, I think it’s possible that AFEX is the best choice these days for foreign wire transfers. Continue reading “Yet another foreign wire transfer service”

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PAIR still vulnerable to the Java licensing problem

It is recalled that to log in at PAIR or EFS-Web using an EPF file (what USPTO calls PKI), you are required to have Java installed in your web browser.

For many years USPTO customers had been telling USPTO that it needed to scrap the dreaded “java applet” method of logging in which is the method that uses the EPF file.  USPTO failed to act upon these suggestions and complaints from customers.

What finally pushed USPTO to devise a new way for logging in (the “MyUSPTO” approach) was not customer complaints but something else, namely that Oracle, the provider of Java, finally got around to announcing that it would start charging money for Java.

And indeed until a few weeks ago, it was all set that by February 15, 2019, USPTO would pull the plug on the EPF way of logging in.

It might be thought that this was the end of java applets for USPTO tasks.  But no.  Java is needed not only for the logging-in task, but also for the downloading of cited US patents and US patent publications from PAIR.  What we are talking about is the ePatent reference program, which USPTO launched in 2004.  USPTO launched ePatent reference at the time that USPTO ceased providing paper copies of cited US patents and cited US patent publications with paper-mailed Office Actions.

So if you are going to download cited US patents and cited US patent pubs from PAIR, you still need Java.  And as of a month ago, you will need to pay a licensing fee to Oracle to be able to use Java.

I suspect that nobody at USPTO gave a moment’s thought to the fact that Java is needed for more than one task in PAIR.  Not only for EPF logins, but also for downloading cited US patents and pubs.

Revised on March 18, 2019 to note that there is an advisory in PAIR that says:

Advisory (13FEB2019): Due to technical difficulties, users may not be able to complete downloads using ePatent Reference.  USPTO technical teams are working to correct the issue.

The PAIR Announcements page does not provide any further explanation of this advisory.  I cannot tell from what USPTO posted whether this February 13 Advisory is linked to the cutoff of the Java-based EPF login procedure that was previously scheduled to happen on February 15.

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Register now for Design Day 2019

click to enlarge

You will recall that back on January 13, 2019 I told you to save the date, namely Thursday, April 25.

Registration is now open for Design Day 2019.  This will be at the USPTO in Alexandria, Virginia.

This event always sells out weeks in advance.  If you want to attend, you need to register right away.

To learn more, or to register, click here.

Yours truly is among the members of the planning committee for Design Day 2019.  I can promise you that it will be a good use of your time to attend.

 

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Today is a snow day at the USPTO

Today, Wednesday, February 20, 2019 is a snow day.  This means that any document that you needed to file today at the USPTO will be timely if you file it by tomorrow, Thursday, February 21.

(This might be as good a time as any to subscribe to this blog.)