Extension of the Payor Number Practice (Through ``Customer Numbers'') to Matters Involving Pending Patent Applications

The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is extending the Payor Number practice to matters involving pending patent applications. Payor Numbers are currently used to establish a ``fee address'' for receipt of maintenance fee correspondence. Through the use of ``Customer Numbers,'' the PTO will extend the Payor Number practice to matters involving patent applications. Under this Customer Number practice, an applicant (or patentee) will be able to use a Customer Number to: (1) designate the address associated with the Customer Number as the correspondence address for an application (or patent); (2) designate the address associated with the Customer Number as the fee address (37 CFR 1.363) for a patent; and (3) submit a power of attorney in the application (or patent) to the registered practitioners associated with the Customer Number. The change of either the address or practitioners having a power of attorney in multiple patent applications through a single paper directed to the Customer Number should result in savings to the attorney, agent, or law firm, as well as the PTO.

Task: Read the news
Patent or trademark: both
Legacy system: —
Current entry point: www.federalregister.gov/documents/1996/10/21/96-26845/extension-of-the-payor-number-practice-through-customer-numbers-to-matters-involving-pending-patent (permanent link in the Federal Register, verified 2026-09-30)
Legacy system and where it moved: No legacy system name mention in title or summary )
Fee: Fee mentioned in title or summary (Confirmed in the document text)
What you need (account or API key): No account or key mention in title or summary )
Published: 1996-10-21
Document type: Notice
Source: USPTO documents published in the Federal Register (Federal Register API)(retrieved 2026-10-06)

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