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.