Telling twelve thousand people about four free webinars

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The map at right shows, in real time, our progress in letting twelve thousand people learn that they have an opportunity to attend four free-of-charge webinars about PCT forms.  As you can see, some 1600 emails have been sent (light green shading) to people in Asia and Africa and eastern and central Europe.  Just now, emails are being sent (dark green shading) to people in west Africa and parts of Greenland.  Some 11000 emails are waiting to be sent to people in North and South America.  Why did these emails not get sent all at once?  Continue reading “Telling twelve thousand people about four free webinars”

How many Patent Center bugs and missing features can one encounter in a single e-filing task?

Today I had to pay an Issue Fee.  Let’s see how many Patent Center bugs and missing features I encountered in a single e-filing session in Patent Center, trying to pay an Issue Fee. Try to guess how many bugs and missing features were encountered. Continue reading “How many Patent Center bugs and missing features can one encounter in a single e-filing task?”

Patent Center is not ready, and PAIR cannot be shut down tonight

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Just now I logged in at Patent Center and tried to view my outgoing correspondence.  I was greeted with a big red error message saying Search Limit Reached.  This is bug number CP178.  I opened EBC ticket number 1-843318724.   EBC agent 50 checked with the Patent Center team and reported back that this is a feature, not a bug.  This feature blocks data mining, he explained.  Continue reading “Patent Center is not ready, and PAIR cannot be shut down tonight”

Counting down to the USPTO’s shutdown of PAIR and EFS-Web

Readers will recall that originally the USPTO was firm in its commitment to a shutdown of PAIR and EFS-Web at 11:59 PM on November 7, 2023 (blog article).

Readers will also recall that with less than two hours remaining before the close of business on November 7, the USPTO blinked and did not shut down PAIR and EFS-Web that day (blog article).  Instead, the USPTO postponed the shutdown of PAIR and EFS-Web by four business days.  The shutdown got postponed to 11:59 PM today, November 14.

Yes, the USPTO has firmly stated today is the day that it will shut down PAIR and EFS-Web.  This will happen at 11:59 PM tonight.

USPTO leadership has taken corrective action

On November 5, 2023, I predicted (blog article) that the USPTO leadership would take corrective action in response to the situation that EBC would often tell a caller that the way to overcome a bug in Patent Center was to go back and do the task using PAIR or EFS-Web.  And my prediction has turned out to be correct.  USPTO leadership has indeed taken corrective action about this situation.  Continue reading “USPTO leadership has taken corrective action”

USPTO pushes back the date to release “son of EPAS/ETAS”

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(Update:  the migration has now been postponed for a third time, see blog article.)

On October 31, 2023, the USPTO announced that December 4, 2023 was the date upon which a new system called IPAS (Intellectual Property Assignment System) will replace EPAS (Electronic Patent Assignment System) and ETAS (Electronic Trademark Assignment System).  See screen shot at right.   But now the release date has been pushed back.  One wonders whether IPAS will disappoint its users, as will be discussed.  Continue reading “USPTO pushes back the date to release “son of EPAS/ETAS””