Users of EFS-Web are accustomed to the notion that any time we e-file anything, once we have finished we can click a button to send an email. In my office the routine is that the filer clicks the button to send an email message to the docket desk so that they know what got e-filed.
The alpha testing of Patentcenter began in autumn of 2018. From the beginning of Patentcenter, there were some e-filing paths that would finish with no email button. There were only a few of us alpha testers and we all brought this up to the USPTO. There really needed to be an email button!
There are some e-filing paths in Patentcenter that do lead to a place where the user can click a “send email” button. But even now in 2020 there are e-filing paths in Patentcenter that lead to a place where the “send email” button is conspicuously absent.
One of USPTO’s stated design goals is “if you can do it in EFS-Web we will make it so that you can do it in Patentcenter”. This goal has not been met for the “send email” button. One hopes that eventually USPTO will get Patentcenter fixed so that there is a “send email” button every time the filer has successfully e-filed anything.
(Another of USPTO’s stated design goals is “if you can do it in Private PAIR we will make it so that you can do it in Patentcenter”.)
Is it a problem for you that some of the e-filing paths in Patentcenter finish with no “send email” button? Please post a comment below. (This is ticket number CP6.)