In a Patent Alert e-mail distributed on July 2, 2019, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that PKI authentication for EFS-Web and Private PAIR has been permanently disabled. The Office had previously announced in late December that the initial December 31, 2018 deadline for the retirement of PKI certificates was being postponed until February 15, 2019. And then on February 14, 2019, the Office announced that due to technical issues, the retirement of PKI certificates was being postponed until further notice. The end of PKI authentication should not come as a surprise to most practitioners, however, as the Office recently announced an outage of the system from May 30 to May 31 and then another outage beginning on June 5.
In announcing the permanent disablement of PKI authentication, the Office also announced that the deadline for practitioners to migrate a PKI certificate to a USPTO.gov account will be July 16, 2019. Practitioners who fail to migrate their PKI certificates by the July 16 deadline will have to obtain a verified USPTO.gov account using the Office's new verification process (in the same manner that new practitioners will be required to obtain a verified USPTO.gov account). Information regarding the new verification process can be obtained here. Briefly, the new verification process consists of completing a Patent Electronic System Verification Form (PTO-2042a), having the form notarized, and mailing the original, notarized form to the USPTO. Thus, if you have a PKI certificate, but have not yet migrated that certificate to a USPTO.gov account, you will probably want to do so before the July 16 deadline.
As the Office indicated last October, the new authentication system for accessing the EFS-Web and Private PAIR is safer and simpler than the old system, allowing for access to multiple USPTO systems with one consolidated sign-in, eliminating the need to share credentials by providing practitioners and their support staff with their own USPTO.gov accounts, and helping resolve browser compatibility issues (see "USPTO Moving to New Authentication System for EFS-Web and Private PAIR"). The Office has also noted that the new system will provide users with access to the EFS-Web and Private PAIR until the full release of Patent Center, the next generation tool that will replace the EFS-Web and Private PAIR in 2020.
In addition, the Office announced the release of a migration tool last October, which allows existing PKI digital certificate holders to link their USPTO.gov accounts to their current PKI digital certificates. To migrate an existing PKI digital certificate, users must have a USPTO.gov account. Users who need to create a USPTO.gov account can do so by following the steps under the "Create a USPTO.gov Account" tab at the Office's authentication change webpage. Once a USPTO.gov account has been created, users can follow the steps under the "Migrate your PKI Certificate" tab at the Office's authentication change webpage (or refer to the Guide for Migration) to link that account to their PKI certificate. The Office notes that users should allow 1–2 business days after the migration steps are finished for the migration process to be completed. Once the process is completed, users will be able to sign into the EFS-Web or Private PAIR using their USPTO.gov account:
EFS-Web:
https://efs-my.uspto.gov/EFSWebUIRegistered/EFSWebRegistered
Private PAIR:
https://ppair-my.uspto.gov/pair/PrivatePair
Additional information regarding the new authentication process can be found in the Office's Patent Electronic System Access Document. This resource includes information about USPTO.gov accounts; two-step authentication; signing in and signing out from USPTO systems; Patent Electronic Access roles for practitioners, support staff, and inventors; suspension of accounts; authorization; authentication steps; the sponsorship process (by which practitioners can grant or remove sponsorship for support staff individuals to work under their direction and control); and the Office's verification policy and identity proofing of sponsored support staff. With respect to identity proofing, the Office has stated that "[e]ach practitioner will be responsible for verifying the identity of the person using any sponsored support Staff account."
Shortly after announcing the new authentication system last October, the Office also announced the availability of a sponsorship tool for sponsorship of support staff. With respect to sponsorship, the Office emphasized that practitioners no longer have to share their credentials, and in fact, would no longer be permitted to share accounts with support staff, who need to establish their own USPTO.gov accounts in order to access the EFS-Web Registered and Private PAIR. USPTO.gov accounts are now being used as the first step to log into EFS-Web Registered and Private PAIR. The second step of the two-step authentication system requires users to choose to receive an e-mail or phone call which will provide a 6-digit code that is to be entered along with their USPTO.gov password (or use an authenticator app on their mobile phone to provide the additional secure verification). The Office's sponsorship tool, which allows practitioners to grant or remove sponsorship for support staff individuals (under the direction and control of sponsoring practitioners) to work on their behalf, can be accessed here.
Practitioners should familiarize themselves with the identify verification (or proofing) requirements of the new authentication system. Under the identity proofing and enrollment process, the identity evidence and attributes of users of the Office's Patent Electronic System are collected, uniquely resolved to a single identity within a given population or context, then validated and verified. Current PKI certificate holders who migrate their PKI certificates using the migration tool will be considered to have met the identity proofing requirements. However, for support staff being sponsored by practitioners, sponsoring practitioners are "responsible for proofing the identity of the person being sponsored," and "[e]ach sponsoring practitioner will establish a procedure for identity proofing sponsored users and maintain a record of that procedure." Additional details regarding identity verification requirements can be found in the Office's Patent Electronic System Access Document.
Users requiring assistance to create a USPTO.gov account should call the USPTO Contact Center (UCC) at 800-786-9199. Users requiring assistance with migration should contact the Patent Electronic Business Center at ebc@uspto.gov or 866-217-9197. Questions or comments related to the new authentication method may be sent to eMod@uspto.gov. A list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the authentication change for EFS-Web and Private PAIR can be found here.
For additional information regarding this topic, please see:
• "USPTO Further Delays PKI Certificate Termination Date," February 14, 2019
• "USPTO Delays PKI Certificate Termination Date," December 23, 2018
• "USPTO Director Issues Notice on New Authentication System for EFS-Web and Private PAIR," December 3, 2018
• "USPTO Moving to New Authentication System for EFS-Web and Private PAIR," October 4, 2018
