Status of DOCX initiative as of right now redux

The USPTO blinked yet again yesterday on DOCX.  The bad things that the USPTO was planning to do starting April 3, 2023 have now been postponed to June 30, 2023, according to USPTO speakers during a DOCX propaganda webinar yesterday.  At above right is a screen grab by alert listserv member Michael Dryja of a presentation slide during the webinar. 

The USPTO has by now blinked three times on this particular bad part of its DOCX initiative, namely the $400 penalty for failing to agree to DOCX being the “controlling” format for a patent application.

• • On August 3, 2020, the USPTO announced January 1, 2022 as the start date of the $400 penalty.  (You can see the Federal Register notice.)
  • On November 22, 2021, the USPTO blinked a first time, changing the start date of the $400 penalty from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023.   (You can see the Federal Register notice.)
  • On December 29, 2022, the USPTO blinked a second time, changing the start date of the $400 penalty from January 1, 2023 to April 3, 2023.   (You can see the Federal Register notice.)
  • Now on March 9, 2023, the USPTO has blinked a third time, changing the start date of the $400 penalty from April 3, 2023 to June 30, 2023.  (A formal notice from the USPTO is said to be “forthcoming”.)

I called yesterday’s webinar a “propaganda webinar” because that was the least impolite way that I could think of to characterize the USPTO’s DOCX training webinars.  The webinars are filled with false statements like this:

DOCX is a safe and stable open source format supported by many popular word processing applications, including Microsoft Word 2007 and higher, Google Docs, Office Online, LibreOffice and Pages for Mac.

This sentence is not merely a lie from the USPTO, but is a pants-on-fire lie from the USPTO.  I pick apart this lie, and some of the USPTO’s other DOCX-related lies, in The Fool’s Errand That Is DOCX, at page 14.  I am proud to be among 82 patent practitioners who signed a letter to Director Vidal on December 28, 2020 about this document.  The 82 patent practitioners asked her to please read The Fool’s Errand That Is DOCX and the 82 patent practitioners asked her to please direct her decisionmakers about DOCX to read it.

The USPTO goes to great lengths to avoid ever admitting that it could be wrong about anything, and goes to even greater lengths to avoid ever admitting that it did anything because of criticism from outside of the USPTO.  So for example when the USPTO blinked the first time, it said this:

The delay will enable the USPTO to provide enhanced testing of its information technology systems as more users file in DOCX. The delay also will give applicants more time to adjust to filing patent applications in DOCX format.

When the USPTO blinked the second time, it said that the USPTO:

… is now further delaying the effective date for the fee to give applicants more time to adjust to filing patent applications in DOCX format.

When the USPTO publishes its Federal Register notice (some time in the next week or two) to formally communicate the third blink, I predict the USPTO will once again be disingenuous about the reason for the delay.