Category: Patentcenter

Patentcenter, it is recalled, is the system that USPTO intends will replace PAIR and EFS-Web.  Eventually USPTO will shut down PAIR and EFS-Web.  USPTO has said from the beginning that one of its design imperatives for Patentcenter has been and is that every function and feature of PAIR and EFS-Web will be replicated into Patentcenter.  One of the important features of EFS-Web is the web-based ADS.

In December of 2019, I noted that the web-based ADS feature of Patentcenter was defective.  I was astonished to see that in Patentcenter, the drop-down list of Offices in which a priority application might have been filed omitted the European Patent Office.  I reported this to the Electronic Business Center (“EBC”) and the EBC opened a “trouble ticket”.

Some fifty thousand times per year, an applicant files a patent application at the USPTO that claims priority from an EP application.  If you use EFS-Web to file such an application, you can pick EPO from the appropriate drop-down list in the web-based ADS.

But as I say, astonishingly in Patentcenter the exact same drop-down list failed to include EPO as one of the choices.

USPTO says that one of the ways that beta testers of Patentcenter can report bugs in Patentcenter is by reporting the problem to the EBC.  In my case, in December of 2019 I not only reported this problem to the EBC, but I took the extra step of opening an EBC trouble ticket.  But it is clear that this bug reporting path does not work.  In six months I never heard back from the EBC about this trouble ticket.

Then USPTO made Patentcenter open to all users.  I launched the Patentcenter listserv and one of the earliest topics discussed was this defect in Patentcenter.  I launched the Patentcenter trouble ticket page and this bug got listed as CP9.  I blogged about this bug here.

Now the USPTO has quietly fixed this bug in Patentcenter.

I have three reactions to this development.

First, my first reaction is yes, of course it is a good thing that the Patentcenter developers finally did get around to fixing this defect in Patentcenter.  Fifty thousand times per year an applicant in the USPTO claims priority from an EP application.

Second, and I mean this as a very serious question, why did it take six months for the Patentcenter developers to get around to fixing this bug?  It speaks poorly for the USPTO that even though USPTO says one of the ways to report Patentcenter bugs is by reporting them to the EBC, the fact is that reporting a bug to the EBC seems to go into a black hole and the bug does not get fixed.    It is unfortunate that what it took to get the Patentcenter developers to take this seriously was the formation of a listserv of 150 power users, and for the listserv to apply pressure at a very high level within the USPTO.

Third, and I also mean this very seriously, I feel it is very poor customer relations that I had to find out completely by accident that the USPTO finally got around to fixing this bug.  It would be a matter of common courtesy for the USPTO to respond to the listserv to let the listerv know that the USPTO had gotten around to fixing this bug, and thus that CP9 could be closed.  I learned of this only because one of the listserv members stumbled upon the newly corrected bug, and brought it to my attention.

(Update:  I spoke too soon when I said USPTO finally got around to bringing the “last 40 ack receipts” feature of EFS-Web into Patentcenter.  See blog article and blog article.)

USPTO released Patentcenter for alpha testing in the summer of 2018.  Patentcenter, it is recalled, is the system that USPTO intends will replace PAIR and EFS-Web.  Eventually USPTO will shut down PAIR and EFS-Web.  USPTO has said from the beginning that one of its design imperatives for Patentcenter has been and is that every function and feature of PAIR and EFS-Web will be replicated into Patentcenter.  One of the important features of EFS-Web is “last 40 acknowledgment receipts”.

Our firm was among the first alpha testers of Patentcenter.  And one of the first issues that we raised with the Patentcenter developers in 2018 was that Patentcenter failed to provide “last 40 ack receipts”.  

On November 20, 2019 Jeff Ingerman pointed out this problem with Patentcenter in Ideascale.  You can see it here.  This was idea number 383.  It received two up-votes.  But that did not lead to USPTO providing that function in Patentcenter.  This offers a reminder of how useless Ideascale has been.

Then USPTO made Patentcenter open to all users.  I launched the Patentcenter listserv and one of the earliest topics discussed was the need for this feature.  I launched the Patentcenter feature request page and this feature got listed as FR4.  

On May 10, 2020 the USPTO took a step toward providing this feature, as I described here.  USPTO added an item in a drop-down list, an item that clearly was intended eventually to lead to “last 40 ack receipts”.  Back in May if you were to click on that link you would reach a “404 page not found” error.

But now USPTO has quietly turned on the “last 40 ack receipts” feature in Patentcenter.

I have three reactions to this development.

First, my first reaction is yes, of course it is a good thing that the Patentcenter developers finally did get around to replicating this EFS-Web feature into Patentcenter.  Many EFS-Web users rely on it and use it a lot, and this will help some of those users in their transition to Patentcenter.

Second, and I mean this as a very serious question, why did it take two years for the Patentcenter developers to get around to doing this?  It speaks poorly for the USPTO that the USPTO so directly ignored it when the alpha testers pointed out this omission in 2018, and it speaks poorly for the USPTO that the USPTO likewise ignored it when a beta tester pointed out this omission in autumn of 2019 in Ideascale.  It is unfortunate that what it took to get the Patentcenter developers to take this seriously was the formation of a listserv of 150 power users, and for the listserv to apply pressure at a very high level within the USPTO.

Third, and I also mean this very seriously, I feel it is very poor customer relations that I had to find out completely by accident that the USPTO finally got around to turning on this feature.  It would be a matter of common courtesy for the USPTO to respond to the listserv to let the listerv know that the USPTO had gotten around to releasing this feature, and thus that FR4 could be closed.  I learned of this only because one of the listserv members stumbled upon the newly turned-on feature, and posted to the listserv to report it.

Wikipedia offers a definition of “Easter egg” in the context of computer games:

While the term Easter egg has [historically] been used [simply] to mean a hidden object … it has come to be more commonly used to mean a message, image, or feature hidden in a video game, film, or other, usually electronic, medium. The term used in this manner was coined around 1979 by Steve Wright, the then Director of Software Development in the Atari Consumer Division, to describe a hidden message in the Atari video game Adventure.

In the world of computer games, Easter eggs are reason to smile.  They are features, not bugs.  The software developer who has tucked away an Easter egg or two (or a dozen or two Easter eggs) into a computer game is to be thanked for making life a bit more fun.

But in the context of a patent office e-commerce user interface, what is the meaning of “Easter egg”?  Continue reading “What is an “Easter Egg”?”

One of the first questions that comes up any time any PAIR user tries to use Patentcenter for the first time is, how do you do a search by attorney docket number?  

One of USPTO’s stated design goals for Patentcenter, from the outset, was that Patentcenter is supposed to replicate and enhance all of the functions and features of both EFS-Web and PAIR.  

For most PAIR users, by far the single most frequently used function is “search by attorney docket number”.  The moment that you log into PAIR, you see this function prominently in front of you.  You do not have to hunt for it.  The search itself requires only two mouse clicks, with no hunting or scrolling or required knowledge of Easter egg (hidden) locations in the user interface.  See for example this Ideascale posting where a Patentcenter user writes:

There [is a feature] available in Private Pair, which [is] no longer available in Patent Center.

[It’s] no longer possible to search by docket number. This was useful, for example, when the system did not immediately find via application number.

As I say, this is by far the most frequently used single function in PAIR for most users.  So one assumes the Patentcenter designers would (a) provide the same function, or better, and (b) make it just as easy to find, or easier to find.

No, no, no, and no. Continue reading “How do you search by attorney docket number in Patentcenter?”

Back in autumn of 2018, the alpha testers of Patentcenter told the Patentcenter developers, over and over again, please go and look at ePCT to see how they do it.  Please look at the feature list for ePCT, said the alpha testers, and design your database structures so that you can implement the same features as in ePCT when the time comes.  

It is now summer of 2020.  Strikingly often, what we see is that twenty months later, a bug or missing feature that got reported to the USPTO in autumn of 2018 is still outstanding, and part of the bug report or missing feature report are words along the lines of “… and by the way a similar feature works correctly in ePCT.” Continue reading “If only the Patentcenter developers had looked at ePCT”

Some readers are aware of a struggle that is going on right now between a group of Patentcenter beta testers and the people at the USPTO who are in charge of the design of Patentcenter.  The Patentcenter beta users comprise a listserv.

The Patentcenter beta testers point to many bugs and missing features in Patentcenter that have been broken and missing since autumn of 2018 when alpha testing of Patentcenter began.  They ask USPTO to communicate with the listserv.  USPTO has refused to communicate with the listserv.  See blog article How should USPTO interact with its Patentcenter beta testers?

USPTO has repeatedly said that there is no need for it to communicate directly with the listserv because its original alpha tester and beta tester feedback mechanisms are supposedly more than adequate.  The three original mechanisms are:

• posting messages to USPTO’s Ideascale
• opening of trouble tickets at the USPTO Electronic Business Center, and
• sending email to eMod@USPTO.GOV.

None of these mechanisms works even remotely well, from the point of view of the alpha testers and beta testers.  I personally have reported many Patentcenter bugs to the EBC since the start of alpha testing in autumn of 2018, and not once did I ever hear back from the EBC about whether any bug got fixed or how a trouble ticket somehow got closed.

There had been a point a few weeks ago at which it seemed the USPTO was on the verge of making it possible to have some actual direct communication between USPTO’s Patentcenter developers and the listserv.  Since then, unfortunately, I have not heard further from the USPTO.   Meanwhile, the Trouble Report list maintained by the listserv continues to grow, and the Feature Request list maintained by the listserv continues to grow.  

So the natural question that arises is, what might we as USPTO customers do to help the USPTO to understand that it is actually in the USPTO’s interest to make time to communicate directly with the listserv?  I realized that one possibility is that maybe the USPTO decisionmakers do not fully appreciate the depth of failure of the original three mechanisms in terms of getting bugs fixed and getting missing features implemented.   Maybe if USPTO were to see an itemised report, listing one by one in an objective fashion, the many dozens of Patentcenter missing feature reports that were reported to the USPTO from autumn of 2018 to the present, that USPTO failed to implement?  Maybe if USPTO were to see an itemised report, listing one by one in an objective fashion the many dozens of Patentcenter bug reports that were reported to the USPTO from autumn of 2018 to the present, that USPTO failed to fix?  

The report would review bug reports and missing-feature reports that had been posted to Ideascale by alpha testers during alphatest.  This is not easy to do because the USPTO has deleted those postings from public view — who can say why?   I sent a FOIA request to USPTO and received a copy of all of my own alpha tester postings to Ideascale.  If I were to make the time for it, I could work my way through the 75 pages of that document and itemize things. and generate some sort of report showing just how much of a failure the Ideascale mechanism has been in terms of getting Patentcenter bugs fixed and getting missing features implemented over the past 20 months.  (You can see the 75-page FOIA response here.)

The other thing would be to review all of the Patentcenter alpha test and beta test problems that I reported to the EBC from autumn 2018 to the present.  I have reported dozens of bugs to the EBC.  EBC opened many trouble tickets.  Not once has anybody from the EBC gotten back to me in response to even one of those trouble tickets.  I made a FOIA request to the USPTO asking for documents indicative of the Patentcenter trouble reports that I reported to the EBC from autumn 2018 to now, and documents indicative of how the USPTO somehow closed those tickets or otherwise addressed them.  I heard back from the USPTO FOIA office that if I want these documents, I will have to send them a check for  $833.40.  You can see the letter here.  I’ve just sent them the check and I am looking forward to seeing the results, which I suppose will show up in a couple of weeks.  If I were to make the time for it, I could work my way through those documents as well, after they arrive, generating some sort of report showing just how much of a failure the report-to-EBC mechanism has been in terms of getting Patentcenter bugs fixed and getting missing features implemented over the past 20 months.

But imagine a different next few weeks or months.  Imagine a future in which the Patentcenter developers, in a reversal of the previous digging-in of heels, might actually choose to communicate directly with the listserv.  This would permit my energies to go toward a goal shared by the USPTO and by the listserv — making Patentcenter better.  I would much rather direct my energies that way, rather than directing my energies toward generating detailed objective reports showing the extent of failure of the old communications paths.

The USPTO is developing its Patentcenter system which it intends will eventually replace EFS-Web and PAIR.  Eventually USPTO plans to shut down EFS-Web and PAIR and the only way that customers of the USPTO will be able to accomplish the functions formerly carried out through EFS-Web and PAIR will be by means of Patentcenter.  From the outset, USPTO has said that one of its stated requirements for Patentcenter is that it must offer at least all of the functions of EFS-Web and PAIR.

Patentcenter is not yet released from beta test, and rightfully so, given that many features of EFS-Web and PAIR are not yet implemented in Patentcenter, and given that many things in Patentcenter do not work correctly or do not work at all.  (See Patentcenter Trouble Tickets and Patentcenter Feature Requests.)  During beta test, a natural question is, in what way or what ways should the people at the USPTO who are responsible for developing Patentcenter interact with those beta testers? 

The USPTO has made clear that it feels it should not have to respond in any direct way to any of the beta testers when they report bugs or missing features.  Continue reading “How should USPTO interact with its Patentcenter beta testers?”

One of the design goals of Patentcenter is to provide the functions of EFS-Web.  In EFS-Web, the most frequently carried-out tasks are:

• file a new patent application
• start a new follow-on submission (a subsequently filed document)
• open a saved submission to continue the submission process

So let’s go on a treasure hunt, shall we?  Where can we find these three tasks, somewhere on the main menu bar of Patentcenter?  The answer is, not one of these three tasks can be found at the place where you would guess it to be based upon the wording of that main menu bar.  This is Trouble Ticket CP34. Continue reading “Patentcenter uses wrong words on links”

There are many things that Palm reveals to people inside of the USPTO, that PAIR and Patentcenter do not reveal to applicants.  Here are some of those things that Patentcenter should reveal to applicants. Continue reading “Patentcenter should reveal application status”

Broadly speaking, Patentcenter does extremely poorly on validations.  The designers of Patentcenter would merely need to have looked at ePCT to see how to do validations correctly.  Here are examples of validations and how to do them right and how to fail to do them, and how to do them wrong. Continue reading “Validations in Patentcenter”