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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") suffered a major power outage on December 22, 2015, damaging equipment that required the subsequent shutdown of many of its online and IT systems, including its filing, searching, and payment systems. As of December 24, 2015, the USPTO estimates that these systems will be impacted through at least Chrismas.
The USPTO web site at http://www.uspto.gov/blog/ebiz/ reports that under this emergency situation, each day from Tuesday, December 22, 2015, through Thursday, December 24, 2015, will be considered to be a “Federal holiday within the District of Columbia” under 35 U.S.C. § 21 and 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.6, 1.7, 1.9, 2.2(d), 2.195, and 2.196. Any action or fee due on these days will be considered as timely for the purposes of, e.g., 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051(b), 1058, 1059, 1062(b), 1063, 1064, and 1126(d), or 35 U.S.C. §§ 119, 120, 133, and 151, if the action is taken, or the fee paid, on the next succeeding business day on which the USPTO is open (37 C.F.R. §§ 1.7(a) and 2.196).
Status updates may be issued on the USPTO systems alert page (www.uspto.gov/blog/ebiz/), as well as on the USPTO Facebook (www.facebook.com/uspto.gov) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/uspto) accounts.