If the trademark electronic filing system is unavailable due to either a limited or short-term USPTO system outage or a user’s system outage on the date of the deadline for submission of a document, a petition to the Director to accept a paper submission may be submitted. 37 C.F.R. §2.147(a). This petition option is not available to filers who attempt to use the trademark electronic filing system during a regularly scheduled system maintenance event, when it is not the day of a deadline, or when the failure to file the relevant submission through the trademark electronic filing system was because of user error.

Because filers would not have access to the petition form in the trademark electronic filing system in such circumstances, the USPTO will provide a "Petition to Director" form along with other electronic form previews in PDF and Word format on the "Submitting documents to the USPTO when unable to file electronically" webpage that may be downloaded and submitted with the other required documents.

Petition requirements. To be timely, the petition must be filed on the date of the deadline with a certificate of mailing attesting to that date. 37 C.F.R. §§2.147(a)(1)(ii), 2.197(a)(2). The filer also must submit proof with the petition that the trademark electronic filing system was unavailable on the date of the deadline. 37 C.F.R. §2.147(a)(2)(ii). In addition to proof of the trademark electronic filing system's unavailability (such as screenshots) and the paper submission to be filed, the petition must include a statement of the facts relevant to the petition supported by a declaration under 37 C.F.R. §2.20 or 28 U.S.C. §1746, the fee for the petition, and any other required fees. 37 C.F.R. §2.147(a)(2).