PTAB Precedential Decision Clarifies When A Wire Transfer "Payment Is Received" By The Board

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Precedential Opinion Panel (POP) recently issued a precedential decision clarifying when a wire transfer "payment is received" via the Federal Reserve Fedwire System (Fedwire). Oftentimes, wired funds are not "settled" in a recipient's bank account until several days after a payer initiated the wire transfer. This delay between initiation and settlement was raised in Toshiba Am. Elec. Components, Inc., v. Monument Peak Ventures, LLC.¹ The Petitioner submitted an inter partes review (IPR) petition and the accompanying petition fee by wire to Treasury NYC (the USPTO's bank) two days before the one-year statutory bar date, but the funds did not settle in the USPTO's account until after the bar date. The POP addressed the question of the appropriate date, holding that payment was received when the funds were wired to Treasury NYC, not when the funds eventually settled in the USPTO's account.