Effective as of July 2nd 2021 the USPTO has announced that it is eliminating the handwritten signature requirement set forth in 37 CFR § 1.4(e) by a final rule, effective July 2, 2021.

Section 1.4(e) required original handwritten signatures in dark ink on correspondence relating to (1) registration to practice before the Office and other matters within the purview of the Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED), and (2) payments by credit card where the payment is not being made via the Office’s electronic filing systems. The removal of § 1.4(e) makes permanent the USPTO’s waiver of these signature requirements published in the Federal Register on March 30, 2020 (85 FR 17502). Elimination of § 1.4(e) allows, for example, the use of facsimile transmissions and S-signatures, and facilitates implementation of an electronic filing system within the OED. As a conforming change, this final rule also removes § 1.6(d)(1) to eliminate an obsolete cross reference to § 1.4(e).

This change does not affect the content of the Patent Hacks™ Learning Center.