Populating past maintenance payments for IP rights

This guide explains how to populate a past payment that is still payable in the grace period but which has not been provisioned on the platform

Contents

• Why is my annuity in grace not populated automatically?

• Manually populate an annuity in the grace period

Why is my annuity in grace not populated automatically?

When you begin using iPify for IP maintenance, we assign a responsibility start date—typically specified in your onboarding questionnaire. This date marks when we assume responsibility for your payments and determines when the platform begins automatically populating maintenance fees for uploaded IP rights.

For example, if your responsibility date is 1st January 2025 and you upload an IP right with a missed annuity due on 10th December 2024 and the next due on 10th December 2025, only the 2025 annuity will be populated. The 2024 annuity, though still in its grace period, will not appear.

This approach is intentional. During transitions to a new provider, many maintenance fees still in the grace period have already been paid. Populating them would clutter your account with items that often require manual cancellation.

So, how do you populate grace period payments that still need to be paid?

Manually populate an annuity in the grace period

Go to the Patent Details page 

1. Go to the patent details page of the patent to which the payment relates by either
   1. clicking on 'Patents' in the left-hand menu bar:
      
      
      1. Search for the patent by entering your reference or the iPify reference into the search field and click on the patent name to enter the patent details page
         
   2. Directly from your 'Orders' section by entering your reference or the iPify reference into the search field above the orders table
      

1. 1. 1. Click on the patent reference which is listed in grey under the service description
         

1. On the patent details page, you will see a 'Prepare Orders' button on the top right-hand side of the page. Click on this button
   
   
   
2. If you have more than one profile set up in your account, you will need to choose the correct profile that is used for maintenance services at this stage. 
   
   
   
3. Once you have chosen a maintenance profile (or if you only have one profile set up), you will be taken to a page where any payable annuities relating to the selected patent which have not been populated in your account are listed
   
   
   
4. Select the appropriate annuity and click on 'Get Price' which will appear at the foot of your page. 
   
   
   
5. Once you have done this, you can navigate back to your Orders page and the annuity that you have selected will now be visible and available to you for instruction.