The USPTO appears to be digging in its heels on DOCX. The USPTO published a Federal Register notice on December 29, 2022 entitled Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees During Fiscal Year 2020 (click here to see it) that provided an email contact. On February 3, 2023 I wrote to the email contact, asking that my document The Fool’s Errand That Is DOCX (click here to see it) be placed in the rulemaking record. He wrote back saying this:
Thank you for your message.
In accordance with Office Policy, I have not opened the attachment.
I wrote back the same day, saying:
Dear Mr Polutta —
You mention an “Office Policy.” Could you please provide a cite or URL where it’s published?
I never heard back from him about this. So I guess he was refusing to place the document into the rulemaking record in response to my email message.
So I guess there is no choice but to send it to him on paper, so as to eliminate the excuse of it having been an email attachment. That is what I did today (click here to see what I sent). Let’s hope that now he might place this document into the rulemaking record.