Reminders begin being sent out monthly (between the 10th-20th of the month) approximately 6 months before an annuity due date and will continue to be sent until matters are invoiced, or the annuity due date has passed. This is to ensure that our customers have plenty of time to consider what action should be taken for their patents and begin to making arrangements for payment. Providing reminders during this window also allows time to change your mind on whether to pay an annuity and still make payment prior to the annuity due date to avoid any surcharges.
Once a matter has passed its annuity due date, reminders escalate to urgent reminders and include additional information regarding surcharge fees and approaching deadlines. These urgent reminders also include escalated language and formatting to ensure urgency is expressed.
I received a reminder, what do I need to do?
Once you have made a decision on whether you want to pay the upcoming annuity, you can log into our system and instruct for the matters coming due accordingly. As a kind reminder, Black Hills IP Renewals does not pay annuities until invoice fund are received. Please see our article on Changing Renewal Instructions to show you how to change/submit instructions in our portal.
I am not the right contact to be receiving reminders/I don't want reminders, what do I do?
It is our policy to have at least one contact receiving reminders for a portfolio to ensure our customers are aware of upcoming due dates. If another contact is receiving reminders for your portfolio, or you can provide an additional contact, then we can update your users settings accordingly. Please reach out to annuities@blackhillsiprenewals.com.
What do the different "Open Instruction Details" on my reminder mean?
Standard Instructions Due: These matters are those coming due but have not past their instruction due date or considered in grace.
Instructions Past Due: The instruction due date is set two months prior to the patent office due date to ensure instructions and payment are received in a timely manner. If instructions are not received by this date, they are considered past their instruction due date.
Grace Period Instructions Due: Renewal fees were not paid by the patent office due date. Most, but not all, countries have a six-month grace period time frame with surcharges. The system begins calculating grace period fees ten days before the due date.
Abandonment Instructions: Matter is marked with an Abandon instruction. This means that you are no longer maintaining this matter and are abandoning your patent rights. Matters with an Abandon instruction will remain under the Abandon tab until the Grace Period Deadline Date.
Paid Elsewhere Instructions: Matter is marked with a Paid Elsewhere or Paid Elsewhere Always instruction.
For Paid Elsewhere, this means that the specific annuity year has been/is being handled elsewhere. Only applies for that annuity year. The matter will re-appear in the Undecided tab (Pay tab for Auto-Invoice/Pay customers) for the next annuity.
For Paid Elsewhere Always, this means that all annuities for this matter are always handled elsewhere, and this matter’s annuities will always appear under the Paid Elsewhere tab.
Instructed- Awaiting Payment: This means that these matters are currently on an Open invoice that is awaiting payment. As a kind reminder, Black Hills IP Renewals does not pay annuities until invoice fund are received.
Urgent Reminders
I received an Annuity Reminder with "URGENT" in the subject line. what does this mean?
We have two different types of Urgent Reminders- Surcharge Risk and Abandonment Risk
Surcharge Risk Urgent Reminders indicate you have an annuity coming due in 1 month. If you do not provide instructions and coordinate payment soon, then you are risking your matter(s) incurring additional late surcharges.
Abandonment Risk Urgent Reminders indicate you have an annuity in Grace Period. If you do not pay this annuity before the Grace Period End/Deadline Date, you are risking permanent loss of your patent rights. We recommend providing instructions and payment in the portal right away to try and avoid loss of rights!
The language in my reminder is in all capital letters. Why?
A lot of the language in our Urgent Reminders emails are in all caps. We do this to catch your attention and inform you of potential loss of patent rights. While this may be a bit alarming, our goal at BHIPR is to help ensure no patent rights are lost unintentionally!
How long will I receive Urgent Reminders?
Urgent Reminders continue to be sent until the matters with annuities due are added to an invoice or the Grace Period End/Deadline Date has passed. In the case of the Grace Period End/Deadline Date passing, our system will automatically update the status for that matter to Inactive and we will no longer track annuities. If you have allowed this Grace Period End/Deadline Date to pass in our system, but have arranged payment of the annuity else where, we recommend reaching out to annuities@blackhillsiprenewals.com and informing our team to ensure future annuities are tracked.
Invoice Reminders
I received an Patent Annuity Unpaid Invoice email. What does this mean and what should I do?
Receiving Invoice Reminders means that you have an open invoice that is awaiting payment. In short, if you want to maintain the patents included on the invoice, you should make payment as soon as possible. As a kind reminder, Black Hills IP Renewals does not pay annuities until invoice fund are received.
Similar to Urgent Reminders, there are two types of Invoice Reminders- Surcharge Risk and Abandonment Risk.
Surcharge Risk Invoice Reminders indicate you have an annuity coming due within 1 month. If you do not coordinate payment soon, then you are risking your matter(s) incurring additional late surcharges.
Abandonment Risk Invoice Reminders indicate you have an approaching Grace Period End/Deadline Date within 2 months. If you do not pay this annuity before the Grace Period End/Deadline Date, you are risking permanent loss of your patent rights. We recommend providing payment in the portal right away to try and avoid loss of rights!
These reminders do increase in frequency the closer a due date becomes.
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