We have a patent for which renewal fees are due. The application was filed January 12, 2012. The patent was granted on September 30, 2017, so renewal fees for years 0-6 are due by December 30, 2017. Renewal fees for years 7-10 are due by January 12, 2018, and by law became payable three months in advance, viz. on October 12, 2017.
In principle there are two ways we could pay these fees. The first way is to use the online legacy payment system, under which one pays fees and then sends the ILPTO a copy of the payment receipt, along with an explanation of what the payment is for. The second way is to log into the ILPTO's electronic filing system and pay through that, which results in the ILPTO automatically being notified that the payment was made and what it was made for. But under the brilliant rules adopted in 2015, as patent practitioners we can only use the second method, unless the ILPTO is feeling magnanimous.
On October 13 - within the three-month window for the second renewal fee - we logged into the ILPTO's system in order to pay both fees, but we found that the system would only let us pay for years 0-6 and not also 7-10. It's unclear why this is so. One guess is that the takanot (ILPTO Rules) require the ILPTO to send a reminder regarding upcoming renewal fees, and since no such reminder has gone out for the second renewal fee, the system won't let us pay. The mailing of that reminder letter may in turn be tied to payment of the first renewal fee - it could be that the system simply won't issue the payment letter for the second fee until it sees that the first renewal fee was paid, thus preventing patent practitioners or institutional patentees from paying renewal fees beyond the first fee if the first fee hasn't already been paid.
What we have established is that (1) the ILPTO is aware of the problem - the person in charge of patent renewals admitted this to our paralegal a few minutes ago - and (2) the ILPTO not only refuses to fix the bug, but insists that patentees pay the renewal fees in two installments - pay the first fee using EFS, wait for the renewal certificate for years 0-6, then pay the second fee using EFS.
We suggested something more reasonable than logging into the defective EFS twice: that we simply pay both fees simultaneously using the legacy system, and send them that receipt. The ILPTO is perfectly capable of processing fees in accordance with the legacy payment system, so this shouldn't present a problem. But no: we were told by the person in charge of patent renewals that she would refuse to process the renewal fees, issue a refund, and force us to pay using the EFS. And that if we had a problem with that, we could take it up with the head of patent administrative services at the ILPTO.
So once again, the ILPTO tells the patenting community to go screw itself, because it's better that the time of the applicants and their attorneys be wasted than an ILPTO clerk have to spend a few more minutes inputting data because the ILPTO refuses to fix its farkakte electronic filing system.
It's our understanding that the recently-installed ILPTO commissioner was chosen with the goal of making the organization more efficient. Telling the patent practitioner community that it is not required to use the EFS until the system is fixed, and then setting about fixing the system, would be a good start.