US practitioners have burned into their memory the débacle of December 22-27, 2015 when all of USPTO’s e-filing systems were broken. For litigation purposes there will surely be cases where it will matter a lot whether a filing that got done on December 28, 2015 was or was not timely. And any US practitioner will have no trouble remembering this very disruptive time.
But ten years from now in litigation, how will it be recalled that, for example, Monday, March 17, 2014 was a snow day at the USPTO? (Maybe the litigants will think to check my blog article about that snow day.)
I am delighted to be able to report that for five years now, WIPO has been quietly maintaining a searchable historical database on exactly this topic. You can go there and click on “US” and then click on “2014” and right there it lists March 17, 2014 as a day that the USPTO was closed.
This valuable resource from WIPO is the sort of database that you hope you will never need, but if you need it, it can be a lifesaver.