An upcoming USPTO meeting about Patentcenter

As some readers know, the USPTO plans eventually to pull the plug on EFS-Web and Private PAIR, leaving only Patentcenter as the way for USPTO customers to carry out the functions that have in the past been carried out in EFS-Web and Private PAIR.   There are, however, many bugs in Patentcenter.  And there are many features that ought to have been implemented in Patentcenter but have not yet been implemented.  You can see some of the bugs and missing features listed here.  These lists are the result of the hard work of the members of the Patentcenter listserv (learn how to join).  Most of the items on the lists are by now more than two years old.

I am delighted to report that our listserv has managed to secure a meeting with Jamie Holcombe, the Chief Information Officer at the USPTO, to discuss some of the outstanding bugs and missing features. 

The hour-long videoconference meeting is set for Thursday, March 23, 2023, at 11AM Eastern Time.

Attending on behalf of the listserv are listserv members Krista Jacobsen, Richard Schafer, Katherine Koenig, and myself.  The attendee that we know about so far on the USPTO side is Mr. Holcombe. I imagine he will bring along others from his team, probably including his Chief Patent Architect, Rey DeJesus, and his Patent Product Line Business Owner Laura Grier.

The Feature Requests that will be discussed are:

• • FR1 – April 30, 2020 – If you are on a page for a particular application, provide a deep link to e-file a paper in that particular application.
  • FR2 – April 30, 2020 – If you have just filed a paper in a particular application, provide a deep link to the documents for that application.
  • FR4 – April 30, 2020 – last 40 ack receipts in Patentcenter fails to truly replicate the function in EFS-Web.

The bug requests that will be discussed are:

• • CP6 – April 27, 2020 – “Send email” button missing when you just got done e-filing something in Patentcenter.
  • CP31 –  June 23, 2020.  The default “outgoing correspondence” filter is three days since imaging, but quite often the USPTO clerks take four days after imaging a document to mail it.  So the outgoing correspondence feature of Patentcenter is defective when compared with the seemingly similar feature in PAIR.
  • CP32– June 29, 2020.  The Examiner lookup for an application needs to stop making it impossible to copy the telephone number and other information from the pop-up screen.
  • CP34 – July 8, 2020.  Things need to be called by their rightful names.
  • CP51– May 27, 2021.  When the user tries to carry out any SFD (subsequently filed document) or follow-on submission in a 35-series applications (US designation from a Hague application), a wholly inappropriate warning appears that scolds the filer for thinking that the e-filed document might go to the International Bureau.  The warning message should be scrapped since any filing in a 35-series case is by definition directed to the USPTO, not to the IB.