Category: Patentcenter

Here is a false statement from the Patentcenter web site of the USPTO (screen shot above right):

Patent Center has 100% of the functionality of EFS-Web, Public and Private PAIR, and is available to all users for electronic filing and management of patent applications.

This false statement on the Patentcenter web site has been reported to the USPTO as EBC ticket number 1-831173674.  This is Patentcenter trouble ticket number CP141 (click here to see it).

On the Patentcenter Trouble Ticket page, we list dozens of reasons why this statement is false.  Here are just a few of them …  Continue reading “A first false statement on the USPTO web site”

Folks, I am reminded that there are bright and alert and nice people in the world.

I encountered a problem in Patentcenter recently.  (For reasons that will become clear, in this posting I am going to avoid discussing the particular problem in detail.)  I posted the problem in https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/ as usual, giving it a new patentcenter trouble ticket number starting with “CP”.    This was one of those trouble reports where a screen shot is part of explaining what the problem is that is being reported. Continue reading “A nice person at the EBC”

In a previous blog article I discussed the front-page attorney docket number search in Patentcenter.  I pointed out that in the legacy system (PAIR) it was possible to check a box to enter a partial docket number to get one or more matches.  In that previous blog article I noted the conspicuous absence of a corresponding check box in Patentcenter’s front-page attorney docket number search.  I am indebted to alert reader Marc V Richards for somehow figuring out that there is an undocumented feature that sort of makes up for the absence of that check box.  It turns out that you can do wildcard searches.  Continue reading “front-page attorney docket search in Patentcenter has an undocumented feature”

(Update:  an alert reader has discovered an undocumented feature of Patentcenter that takes a step in the direction of fixing trouble ticket CP12.  See blog article.)

The USPTO people are probably going to say that in the March 17, 2023 version of Patentcenter, they think they have fixed trouble ticket CP12.  But they have not fixed trouble ticket CP12. Continue reading “CP12 has not been fixed”

It will be recalled that the Patentcenter listserv has secured an hour-long meeting with USPTO’s Chief Information Officer, Jamie Holcombe, on Thursday, March 23.  This will run from 11AM to noon Eastern Time.  I reported this to you in a blog article dated February 7, 2023.  There are two developments about this.  Continue reading “The upcoming meeting with USPTO about Patentcenter redux”

The March 17 version of Patentcenter was clearly not tested before release.  It breaks many things that worked properly in the pre-March 17 version. This has given rise to at least ten new trouble tickets in the Patentcenter Trouble Ticket page. Continue reading “March 17 version of Patentcenter breaks things that worked in previous version”

Today the USPTO rolled out its “modernized look and feel” version of Patentcenter.  It contains lots of new content-free “icons” that take up valuable screen space, wasting pixels and forcing users to scroll further down to reach what they need.  Continue reading “Pixel waste in content-free icons in the “modernized look and feel” Patentcenter”

One of the easiest things to get wrong, for some programmers in some programming languages, are “boundary values”.  Here we see a classic example of a boundary-value mistake by the developers of Patentcenter.  Continue reading “A boundary-value programming mistake in Patentcenter”

It is recalled that one of the requirements for Patentcenter is that it is supposed to replicate the functions of Private PAIR.  Only after this replication is complete would USPTO be entitled to pull the plug on Private PAIR.

The latest lapse, reported by alert listserv member Jill Santuccio, is in the metadata that Patentcenter uses when providing a multi-document download from IFW.  Continue reading “Yet another Patencenter lapse – metadata failing to match Private PAIR”

As some readers know, the USPTO plans eventually to pull the plug on EFS-Web and Private PAIR, leaving only Patentcenter as the way for USPTO customers to carry out the functions that have in the past been carried out in EFS-Web and Private PAIR.   There are, however, many bugs in Patentcenter.  And there are many features that ought to have been implemented in Patentcenter but have not yet been implemented.  You can see some of the bugs and missing features listed here.  These lists are the result of the hard work of the members of the Patentcenter listserv (learn how to join).  Most of the items on the lists are by now more than two years old.

I am delighted to report that our listserv has managed to secure a meeting with Jamie Holcombe, the Chief Information Officer at the USPTO, to discuss some of the outstanding bugs and missing features.  Continue reading “An upcoming USPTO meeting about Patentcenter”