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Ant-like Persistence - Carl Oppedahl's blog

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Please sign a letter to Director Vidal about Patent Center

Hello dear readers.  At https://blog.oppedahl.com/?page_id=9872 you can see a letter that is now “locked” for you to sign.  This is about the USPTO’s scheduled shutdown of Private PAIR and EFS-Web on November 8, 2023.

As of right now the people who have already signed add up to over seventy signers.  They have between them paid over $38 million to the USPTO in the past decade.  They have between them prosecuted more than 32K US patents to issuance in the past decade.

I plan to close the signature system by about the early morning of Friday the 29th.  I plan to send out the letter in the middle of the day on Friday the 29th.  If you are willing to sign, please do so now rather than postponing your signature until Friday the 29th.

To learn more about the Patentcenter listserv, or to join, click here.

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Please provide comments and suggestions for a letter to Director Vidal

Hello dear readers.   At https://blog.oppedahl.com/?page_id=9872 you can see a letter that I plan to post for signature by members of the Patentcenter listserv. This is about the USPTO’s scheduled shutdown of Private PAIR and EFS-Web on November 8, 2023.  I welcome corrections and suggestions for improvement of the letter.  Please post proposed corrections and suggestions on the Patentcenter listserv, or send them to me privately.  Please do this by about the morning of Tuesday, September 26.

To learn more about the Patentcenter listserv, or to join, click here.  If you want to be able to sign the letter once it gets finalized, and if you are not already a member of the listserv, please join the listserv.

 

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Patentcenter is not yet ready for general release

click to enlarge

The USPTO announced a couple of days ago that it has picked the date (November 8, 2023) on which it plans to shut down Private PAIR and EFS-Web, leaving its paying customers with nothing to use except the bug-ridden Patentcenter.  (See USPTO announces shutdown of EFS-Web and Private PAIR, September 20, 2023.)  This decision by USPTO management to shut down Private PAIR and EFS-Web would, perhaps, be a sound decision if several things were true:  Continue reading “Patentcenter is not yet ready for general release”

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USPTO won’t fix the missing “corrective ADS” features in Patentcenter

It is recalled that one of USPTO’s stated goals for Patentcenter is that before it shuts down EFS-Web (scheduled to occur on November 8, 2023), the USPTO will bring forward all of the functions and features of EFS-Web into Patentcenter.  It is also a matter of common sense that each function and feature in Patentcenter that works for one application type needs to be implemented for all other relevant application types.   This blog article reports that the USPTO is now doubling down on a baffling refusal to implement the “Corrected Application Data Sheet” function for 371 applications.   USPTO’s position is, apparently, that so long as the USPTO documents the defect, then this relieves the USPTO of any need to actually correct the defect. Disappointingly, the USPTO extends this refusal to Hague and provisional applications as well. Continue reading “USPTO won’t fix the missing “corrective ADS” features in Patentcenter”

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No web-based Issue Fee payment for Hague applications

It is recalled that one of USPTO’s stated goals for Patentcenter is that before it shuts down EFS-Web, the USPTO will bring forward all of the functions and features of EFS-Web into Patentcenter.  It is also a matter of common sense that each function and feature in Patentcenter that works for one application type needs to be implemented for all other relevant application types.   This blog article reports that the USPTO is now doubling down on a baffling refusal to correct a defect in Patentcenter relating to the payment of Issue Fees in Hague (35-series) applications.  Continue reading “No web-based Issue Fee payment for Hague applications”

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Yet another thing the USPTO got wrong about its planned shutdown of EFS-Web

(updated to mention new trouble ticket CP153.)

The USPTO has announced (press release) that on November 8, 2023, seven weeks from today, it will shut down EFS-Web.  It looks like the USPTO has completely failed to give any thought to what this means for PCT applicants whose patent applications involve genetic and nucleotide sequences.  Continue reading “Yet another thing the USPTO got wrong about its planned shutdown of EFS-Web”

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Patentcenter PCT-related defect is actually a feature?

I was gobsmacked during today’s USPTO webinar entitled How to make a smooth transition to Patentcenter.  The USPTO doubled down on a serious PCT-related defect in Patentcenter, saying that it is actually supposedly a feature, not a bug.

Everybody knows that you are not supposed to enter the US national stage twice from any single PCT application.  Or, to state it more plainly, it is legally impossible to enter the US national stage twice from any single PCT application.

Everybody knows this, that is, except the presenter in today’s USPTO webinar entitled How to make a smooth transition to Patentcenter.  This is a webinar that is intended to help experienced users of EFS-Web and Private PAIR make the transition to Patentcenter.

EFS-Web guards against the inadvertent duplicate entry into the US national stage from a PCT application.  Of course one of the stated design goals for Patentcenter, since its origin in 2018, is that all features from EFS-Web are supposed to be brought forward into Patentcenter.  Indeed the USPTO has announced “mission accomplished” for this stated design goal.  The USPTO says on its web site:

Patent Center has 100% of the functionality of EFS-Web, Public and Private PAIR …

This is patently false (blog article), but USPTO has not corrected this false statement.  One of the ways that USPTO has failed to provide “100% of the functionality of EFS-Web” in Patentcenter is that Patentcenter fails to guard against duplicate attempts to enter the US national stage from a PCT application.  This defect was reported to the USPTO on February 20, 2023 in trouble ticket CP99 (deep link to trouble ticket page).

During today’s USPTO webinar entitled How to make a smooth transition to Patentcenter, an attendee asked about this defect in Patentcenter.  I was gobsmacked to hear the USPTO presenter actually doubling down on the defect, stating that it is supposedly a feature, not a bug.  You can hear the words of the presenter here (MP3 file) and you can play the audio file here:

Here is a transcript:

Attendee question.  In EFS-Web, the system guards against a possible duplicate attempt to enter the US national stage from a particular PCT application.  Patentcenter fails to do so.  Why is that?

USPTO answer.  Stakeholder feedback indicated that Patentcenter may be implemented to allow more than one 371 filing, which may be desirable in situations where, for example, a unity-of-invention restriction was made during the international phase, to separate the claims into multiple groups.  So that was a great question, and hopefully that answer will shed some light on that for you.

Hopefully what will happen soon is that the USPTO will send out a corrective email message to everybody who attended today’s USPTO webinar, letting them know that the presenter was completely wrong about this.

And hopefully, what will happen soon is that the USPTO will correct this defect in Patentcenter, which was reported to the USPTO on February 20, 2023.

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Getting a US passport renewed promptly

The US State Department says that an “expedited” passport renewal by mail has a processing time of 7-9 weeks.  I recently had the good fortune to get a renewal done by mail in less than a month.   My renewal papers got delivered to the State Department on August 16, 2023, and I had my new passport in hand on September 15, 2023.   Here are things that probably helped.  Continue reading “Getting a US passport renewed promptly”

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