2530 Special Acceptance of Maintenance Fee Payments Containing Informalities
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It is strongly recommended that a maintenance fee submission by mail or facsimile include both a telephone number and a mailing address for the fee submitter because, provided the fee is sufficient, the Office may attempt to contact the submitter by telephone and/or by mail to confirm the patent to which the fee is to be applied.
If a maintenance fee payment identifies only the patent number, the Office may apply the payment to the patent identified by the patent number in the payment or may return the payment.
When a patent number and an application number are both supplied, but they do not correspond to the same patent, the Office will generally apply the payment to the patent identified by the patent number, if possible.
- Even if the payment is sufficient and timely to pay the maintenance fee due in the patent identified by the patent number, the Office may return the payment if additional information on the payment submission is inconsistent with the patent identified by the patent number.
If a maintenance fee is due on the patent identified by the application number and the payment submitted is sufficient, the Office may apply the payment to the patent (provided additional corroborating information is present) or may return the payment.
