WIPO’s PCT distance learning course

wipo-logoWIPO offers a distance learning course called Introduction to the Patent Cooperation Treaty.  The course is free of charge.  My suggestion is that any person who is involved in providing services to clients relating to the PCT ought to take this course, pass the quizzes, and obtain the certificate of completion.  My suggestion extends to patent practitioners, paralegals, and administrative assistants.  I took the course just today and here is my certificate of completion.

To learn more or to register for the course, click here.  You can see more information about the course below. Continue reading “WIPO’s PCT distance learning course”

Trademark files from the days before computers

Today we received an interesting letter from the post-registration branch at the USPTO.  The letter says that the Section 15 papers that we filed a couple of months ago (to make a registration “incontestable“) are being bounced.  The Section 15 fee that we paid will be refunded, the letter explains.  The letter explains that the Section 15 papers that we filed “remain in the record”.  The Section 15 papers “will not be returned to you and will not be processed or reviewed.”  Can you guess why this happened?

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Speaking on PCT today in Boulder

bcbaI’ll be speaking today with a 2016 PCT update.  This is for the Boulder County Bar Association.  It is at noon, at the offices of Lathrop & Gage, 4845 Pearl East Circle, Boulder, CO 80301.  (map)

Topics include Best Practices for carrying out e-filing, filing Demands, making changes in bibliographic data, and picking a Searching Authority.

You can register here.

TTABlog’s got legs!

Clipboard02Today marks the twelfth anniversary of the TTABlog.  Yes, the first-ever posting of the TTABlog was on November 8, 2004.  Congratulations and thanks to John L. Welch for all these years of service to the trademark community!

By comparison the Ant-Like Persistence blog is a mere 2½ years old.

Again, kudos and thanks to John!

USPTO’s backup server yet again crashed along with the main server

How disappointing.  For many years now, USPTO has been repeatedly reminded of the need to provide a geographic separation between its main e-filing server (EFS-Web) and the backup (“Contingency”) server.  The idea is that even if one of the servers were to crash, the other one would still be working.  This is a matter of common sense.  Any competent system designer would do this without having to be told.

USPTO has, however, failed to do this.

Readers will recall the incident on May 14, 2014 when both servers crashed and remained out of service for over eighteen hours.  I blogged about this.

Readers will recall the incident on December 22, 2015 when both servers crashed and remained out of service for several days.

Now today, both servers crashed at 3:50 PM (Eastern Time) and remained out of service for over an hour and a half.

It is very very disappointing that USPTO has not taken this common-sense step of geographic separation despite years of reminders of the need to do so.

There is a second, extremely disappointing aspect of today’s double system crash.  The USPTO’s system status page never got updated to indicate that anyone at USPTO was aware of the double system crash.  It is so disappointing when some important USPTO system is broken and the system status page fails to indicate that USPTO is aware of the failure.

Some readers will recall my blog post of April 1, 2016 about the contingency server having been relocated to the Denver patent office.  This was, unfortunately, only an April Fool’s Day posting.   Maybe today’s double crash will finally prompt USPTO to do the right thing as described in that posting.

 

Recordation delays at USPTO’s Assignment Branch

When we e-file a new patent application in EFS-Web, the prize that we seek is the all-important application number.  EFS-Web gives us this very important number within seconds of our clicking “submit”.

When we e-file an assignment in EPAS (the system for e-filing patent assignments for recordation), the prize that we seek is the all-important reel and frame number.   But the EPAS system does not give us this very important number right away.  Usually it takes a few days.

Why does it take a few days?  Why does USPTO not provide the all-important reel and frame number within seconds of our clicking “submit”?

A cynic would imagine that the explanation is an LMR (labor-management relations) issue.  Maybe the USPTO feels it cannot do away with these jobs.

I suppose that’s not the explanation.  I suppose the USPTO feels the need to check the uploaded PDF to see if it contains scandalous subject matter.  And perhaps to check to see whether the document appears on its face to be an assignment (rather than, say, a newspaper clipping).

Normally this takes two or three days.  But we have an assignment that we e-filed on October 10, 2016.  Almost a month has passed and still we do not have the all-important reel and frame number.

So we phoned up the Assignment Branch.  Once a couple of weeks ago and again today.  The people who answer the phone there are very nice.  They did not fix the problem, but they are very nice.  It seems that our submission is still “in process”.

This particular assignment conveys several dozen properties.  I asked the Assignment Branch person whether this might explain the delay.  She said no, the delay is not due to the large number of properties.  She also said no, it is not tied to the type of conveyance.  It is just the large number of assignments that had been e-filed.

This actually doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  We have e-filed at least a dozen assignments since that one on October 10, and in each case we received the all-important reel and frame number within a couple of days.

So I don’t really understand why this one is outstanding since October 10.

How old is your oldest assignment that does not yet have a reel and frame number?  Please post a comment below.

 

Midnight at WIPO returns to normal

A week ago I blogged that filers filing things at WIPO would have an extra hour to get a same-day filing date.  As of a week ago, you could file as late as 5 PM Mountain Time and still get a same-day filing date.

Now today things return to normal.  To get a same-day filing date at WIPO, you will need to file by 4 PM.dst

Errors in USPTO patent application filing receipts

The EFS-Web listserv is a place where US patent practitioners discuss problems and sometimes help each other to solve problems.  (To learn more or to join the listserv, click here.)  Here was a question posed today by one of the members of the listserv:

Apologies for the interruption/venting, but I’ve reached somewhat of a breaking point with errors in official Filing Receipts. My understanding was that fillable ADS forms were being used to expedite entry of data by the Office. However, based on the number of typos and missing information we are seeing on an ongoing basis, I imagine someone is manually typing this information in Office side. Is this still the case?

Sure we have a form request for obtaining a corrected filing receipt, we say the original ADS had the correct information, we show the corrections on the receipt, etc., but addressing Office errors is becoming a time sink.  This is separate from the time we take to cross-check every receipt that comes in, which is redundant of the time we take in reviewing the original ADS to begin with.

Is there something that I am missing?

If it matters, these are 371 filings and I confirm that fillable forms are submitted via EFS, i.e., they are not scans/images. Any insight is much appreciated.

This listserv member is right, of course.  USPTO mistakes in official Filing Receipts impose a substantial cost upon patent practitioners.  In this blog article I will talk about some of the sources of USPTO mistakes and what the patent practitioner can do to try to reduce the number of such mistakes.

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