USPTO has published a content-free page about the massive system outage that (among other things) has broken Private PAIR and EFS-Web:
At approximately 4:30 a.m. ET on August 15, 2018, PALM experienced an issue during maintenance that impacted its ability to function properly.
Yes, that tells us a lot about what happened (not!).
It is sort of true that the EFS-Web Contingency Server is sort of working. I successfully e-filed a design application on Friday using that server — or at least I think I succeeded. Of course I will not really know whether I succeeded until USPTO gets Private PAIR working again.
There are anecdotal reports that the EFS-Web Contingency Server does not work for entry into the US national phase.
See two webinars about workarounds, for which recordings are available.
The chief takeaway from the content-free page is that USPTO commits to posting updates every day at 10AM and 4PM until things are back to normal.
“The chief takeaway from the content-free page is that USPTO commits to posting updates every day at 10AM and 4PM until things are back to normal.”
Which they aren’t: the last update was at 10 a.m. EDT today.
I realize that fixing the problem takes priority, but how hard can it be for someone senior to take a couple of minutes twice a day and let us know what’s going on – as promised by the Director.
Gotta love passive voice error messages to duck accountability. PALM was doing just fine until it had the misfortune to experience that nasty issue that caused so much woe….
We filed 3 divisional apps on Friday via contingency system. Have the receipts!
Any best practices for when PAIR comes back? I expect that we will be looking at every single pending app to compare our record of filings in the past 3 months with that with that of the USPTO. This will be a fairly big resource commitment, and we (in house) have a fixed staffing level.
Also, it would be great if there was a temp email address for sending office action responses to. (I don’t have my hopes up.)
Hi Carl,
I am responding to a final rejection using the AFTER FINAL CONSIDERATION PILOT PROGRAM 2.0.
I can fax the amendment/response to the final rejection.
The problem is in order to enter the After Final 2.0 program, I must certify filing of the amendment (and also the After Final 2.0 form?) via EFS-web. But EFS-web is down so I cannot certify.
The final rejection was mailed on June 21 so I need to decide quickly in order to file by August 21.
IS THE USPTO WAVING THIS REQUIREMENT FOR AFTER FINAL 2.0? This is not a statutory requirement, and I do not see anything about this on their website.