EFS-Web seems to be back online today, December 27.
As we all recall, EFS-Web crashed on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 22. In my case I was in the middle of trying to file a design patent application when it crashed. Fortunately I had been doing frequent saved submissions during that project. Today when I logged in at EFS-Web, my saved submission was there. I completed the submission and clicked submit and paid the fees. As far as I know, it worked.
I say “as far as I know” because unfortunately Private PAIR is not working. So if you e-file a new application in EFS-Web, you are not able to check in PAIR to make sure it came through okay.
But anyway it is good news that USPTO seems to have gotten EFS-Web back online.
It’s perhaps too soon to assume that EFS-Web will continue to be working. Private PAIR worked for about a day (albeit without an IFW tab) and then stopped working. And now Public PAIR is working with an IFW tab.
Good news — but would it kill them to update the status updates section of *their* blog? It’s a bit sad that your blog has more up-to-date information than the PTO’s does.
I just filed a response via EFS-Web, and it worked!