As we reported earlier this week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office originally set a June 30, 2016 deadline for customers to migrate their deposit accounts and electronic funds transfer accounts (EFTs) to Financial Manager, the Office's new online fee payment management tool.  Financial Manager allows customers to store and manage different payment methods (e.g., credit or debit cards, deposit accounts, or EFTs) and generate transaction history and monthly statements.

In an e-mail alert distributed today, however, the Office indicated that the migration deadline has been extended through July, and that a new deadline will be announced at a later date.  After the to-be-announced new deadline passes, the Office will no longer accept legacy deposit account or EFT credentials for payments, and customers who have not migrated their deposit accounts and EFTs to Financial Manager will only be able to make payments as a guest using a credit or debit card.

Additional information regarding Financial Manager can be found here.  In order to migrate deposit accounts and EFTs, customers will first need to create a uspto.gov account.  In addition to the Financial Manager webpage, the Office has provided several additional resources regarding Financial Manager.  To migrate accounts to Financial Manager, the Office has provided a Financial Manager Quick Start Guide and Introduction to Payment Method Migration.