Here is a PDF copy of a letter that got sent today to USPTO Director Kathi Vidal about Patent Center. The letter, dated September 29, 2023, is from One Hundred Seventy-Eight Members of the Patent Center Listserv. An HTML copy of the letter, with clickable links, may be seen here.
The emailed PDF copy of the letter got sent early in the morning of Friday, September 29th. The paper copy of the letter to Director Vidal, sent by USPS, got delivered this morning, Monday, October 2 (click here to see tracking). Here is the opening paragraph of the letter:
This is an urgent matter for your personal attention. We write to ask that decommissioning of the USPTO’s two main software systems for patent applicants, Private PAIR and EFS-Web, currently announced for November 8, 2023, be delayed until Patent Center is complete and robust. These software systems are the USPTO’s primary interface, critical-path linchpins for the entire US patent system. This letter identifies a number of individual defects in the Patent Center software. The pattern of software defects suggests something larger and more important—defects in the USPTO’s software development process. We suggest that the USPTO’s current process trajectory cannot bring Patent Center to acceptable functionality or quality in six weeks. These issues require your personal attention, and cannot be delegated.
I certainly hope that Director Vidal will read the letter carefully and will give much thought to the letter.
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