(Correction — I am told that both AIPLA and IPO also contacted the USPTO privately in recent weeks about this problem.)
It looks like maybe the USPTO blinked on the non-DOCX surcharge problem, at least a little. What forced the USPTO to blink was a letter from 117 patent practitioners pushing back on a December 20, 2022 Federal Register notice. The notice maintained and doubled down on January 1, 2023 as a date that all US patent filers would face a harsh choice — incur substantial risks of losses of patent rights due to the DOCX program, or pay $400 to be able to file a patent application in a way that eliminated those substantial risks. The only visible pushbacks on this December 20, 2022 FR notice were:
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- the above-mentioned letter signed by 117 practitioners, and
- ceaseless personal efforts by Bradley Forrest, a partner at the Schwegman firm.
In this blog article I briefly describe the state of play on the DOCX program as it now appears.
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