AIA ADS fee trap

Before AIA, if an application was filed with an ADS that included a typographical error for an inventor’s name, we filed a Request for a Corrected Filing Receipt along with a copy of the corrected ADS and the declaration. If the declaration included the inventor’s name correctly, there was no fee for the corrected filing receipt.

Now, in AIA world, it is the ADS, not the declaration that the PTO primarily relies on for determining inventorship. Basically, because now a declaration is not required until time of paying the issue fee, the PTO will charge the fee per 1.17(i) which is presently $140 for submitting an application without the declaration is there is any inconsistency between inventor names in ADS and in declaration.

To make matters worse, applicants will be charged another $140 when the request for corrected filing receipt is submitted, because the corrected ADS is treated like a request to correct inventorship per 37 CFR 1.48(a).

$280 may not seem like allot of money, but it is time wasted when you are trying to figure out why the PTO keeps charging your deposit account.