Category: Patents

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Sign up now for ePCT webinars

Hello folks.  Finally after many months of my talking about it, I have scheduled the first few ePCT webinars.   Here are the first few:

  • Thursday, March 2, 2023, 10AM Mountain Time.  Intro to ePCT, why ePCT is important, getting a user ID and password, setting up 2FA.
  • Thursday, March 9, 2023, 10AM Mountain Time. Why attorneys need to learn about ePCT, why you cannot simply delegate stuff to support staff.
  • Thursday, March 16, 2023, 10AM Mountain Time.  Making sure your US priority documents are available to DAS, best practices for filing US priority documents, Certificates of Availability, setting up alerts.
  • Thursday, March 23, 2023, 11AM Mountain Time.  Handshakes, eOwners, eEditors, eViewers, access rights groups, employee first day of work, employee last day of work.
  • Thursday, March 30, 2023, 10AM Mountain Time.  Shared address books, collaborative workflow, sharing with clients, sharing with outside counsel.
  • Tuesday, April 4, 2023, 10AM Mountain Time.  Getting to know your ePCT workbench, portfolios, office profiles, cloning, ePCT actions.
  • Thursday, April 13, 2023, 10AM Mountain Time.  Getting pending PCT applications into your workbench, going back to January 1, 2009, archiving old applications.
  • Thursday, April 20, 2023, 10AM Mountain Time.  Filing a new US PCT application in RO/US using ePCT.

For more information, or to register, click here.

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Another letter to the USPTO about its DOCX initiative

As things stand right now, the USPTO’s stated plan is to proceed with its $400 penalty, starting April 3, 2023, for filers who decline to take the professional liability risks of filing in the DOCX way that the USPTO has prescribed.  It will be recalled (blog article) that on February 1, 2023, five representatives of the EFS-Web and Patentcenter listserv communities met in a videoconference with some USPTO people with a goal of deflecting the USPTO from some of the imminent harmful aspects of its DOCX initiative.  (The USPTO limited the videoconference to 30 minutes.)  We sent a thank-you letter to the USPTO shortly thereafter.

After that, we reviewed our notes from the videoconference and realized that  USPTO’s apparent plans were worse than we fully appreciated during the 30-minute video conference.  We realized that more needed to be said to the USPTO.  Today we sent a followup letter.  Continue reading “Another letter to the USPTO about its DOCX initiative”

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How many have watched the recordings of the 2022 Schwegman lectures?

It will be recalled that in February and March of 2022, thanks to sponsorship of the Schwegman firm, many hundreds of people all around the world were able to attend my lectures about the Patent Cooperation Treaty.  This was a remarkable series of fifteen lectures spread over about six weeks.

The lectures got recorded and the recordings got posted, along with the slides.  This meant that anybody who had missed the live lectures could watch the lectures later, free of charge.  This meant that this generous gift of the Schwegman firm to the world patent community was a gift that kept on giving.   (One place where you can see the recordings and slides is here.)  You might wonder how many have watched the recorded lectures.  Here are some statistics on that.    Continue reading “How many have watched the recordings of the 2022 Schwegman lectures?”

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Yet another Patencenter lapse – metadata failing to match Private PAIR

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It is recalled that one of the requirements for Patentcenter is that it is supposed to replicate the functions of Private PAIR.  Only after this replication is complete would USPTO be entitled to pull the plug on Private PAIR.

The latest lapse, reported by alert listserv member Jill Santuccio, is in the metadata that Patentcenter uses when providing a multi-document download from IFW.  Continue reading “Yet another Patencenter lapse – metadata failing to match Private PAIR”

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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.  Continue reading “An upcoming USPTO meeting about Patentcenter”

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A feature omission in Patentcenter – Track I fees

One of the expressly stated goals for the USPTO developers developing Patentcenter is that every feature and function of EFS-Web and Private PAIR be carried forward into Patentcenter.  Only after this has been accomplished would it be acceptable for the USPTO to pull the plug on EFS-Web or Private PAIR.  Unfortunately, users of Patentcenter frequently encounter situations where some feature of EFS-Web or Private PAIR has been only incompletely carried forward.  This article describes a failure of the developers to fully carry forward all of the features of the Track I workflow.  This harms applicants, as I will describe in some detail.  Continue reading “A feature omission in Patentcenter – Track I fees”

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Maybe some USPTO progress away from bad parts of its DOCX initiative

(An important followup letter got sent on February 14, 2023 to the USPTO — see blog article.)

Readers, I am delighted to be able to report what looks like a bit of progress by the USPTO, away from some of the bad parts of its DOCX initiative.  A meeting took place on February 1, 2023 with some representatives of the patent practitioner listserv committee.  You can read about the meeting below.  Continue reading “Maybe some USPTO progress away from bad parts of its DOCX initiative”

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Eighty-two patent practitioners write to Director Vidal about the DOCX initiative

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Hello readers.  You will recall (blog article of December 27, 2022) that the practitioner community was invited to sign a letter to USPTO Director Vidal.  The letter urged her to read the document entitled The Fool’s Errand That Is DOCX, dated December 27, 2022, and the letter urged her to direct her underlings to read that document.

I am honored to be part of a community of eighty-two patent practitioners who signed that letter to Director Vidal.

This blog article reports that the letter did get sent to the USPTO.  You can see the letter, which is dated December 28, 2022, here.  The USPTO did receive the letter.

The next day, the USPTO blinked and postponed for another three months one of the really bad parts of its DOCX initiative.  See Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees During Fiscal Year 2020, 87 Federal Register 80073, published December 29, 2022.

There is reason to think that the USPTO is moving, albeit slowly, toward yet another bit of progress away from really bad parts of its DOCX initiative, in addition to that blink on December 29, 2022.  I hope to write another blog article soon about what might be another bit of progress.

Please take a look at the names of the eighty-two signers.  Maybe you know some of them.  If so, this might be a good time to say “thank you” to them.