National-stage entry gets into PAIR, and into IFW, far faster for an
e-filed case than for a paper-filed case.
Return to main EFS Web page or to main
Oppedahl & Olson LLP web page.
Example:
- We paper-filed an entry into the US national stage for one of our
applications on November 4, 2005 (at a time when EFS-Web had not yet been made
available to users). For the past six weeks there has been no entry whatsover
in Private PAIR for this application. Finally just now it is present in Private
PAIR. But there is no IFW for it. If our past experience is a guide, there will
be no IFW for this application until about six months from now, when the
application reaches the top of the EO/DO/US pile and EO/DO/US processes it and
releases the file to OIPE.
- We e-filed an entry into the US national stage for another of our
applications on December 9, 2005 (at a time when EFS-Web was available). Almost
immediately, it was in Private PAIR and was also in IFW. Not only that, the (US
patent) references we listed in our IDSs are already available for viewing in
"display references".
So the decision to e-file the national-stage filing rather than
paper-file it accelerated the visibility of the application in Private PAIR by
about a month. And accelerated the visibility of the application in IFW by six
or seven months.
Yet another advantage of using EFS-Web to file papers for entry into the
US national stage is that you get your serial number instantly rather than
weeks or months later.