One of the most striking disconnects during the October 18 meeting with Commissioner for Patents Vaishali Udupa was the topic of “what happens after a USPTO customer opens an EBC (Electronic Business Center) trouble ticket about a Patent Center bug?” Continue reading “Waiting to hear about EBC tickets from Commissioner for Patents Udupa”
USPTO pushes back the date to release “son of EPAS/ETAS”
(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””
USPTO tries to conceal the Patent Center “blink”
It is embarrassing to see the USPTO trying to conceal its “blink” on Patent Center that happened on November 7, 2023. Continue reading “USPTO tries to conceal the Patent Center “blink””
“Increase usability for sponsored accounts with large amounts of customer numbers” means what?
It will be recalled that with less than two hours to go before the close of business on the day that the USPTO had resolutely determined that it was going to shut down the trusted PAIR and EFS-Web systems, the USPTO blinked. (See blog article.) The USPTO decided to postpone the shutdown by four business days, from November 8 to November 15. What excuses did the USPTO provide for this blink? One of the excuses was that the USPTO proposed, during those four days, to “increase usability for sponsored accounts with large amounts of customer numbers”. What exactly does this word salad mean? Continue reading ““Increase usability for sponsored accounts with large amounts of customer numbers” means what?”
Listervs have been migrated to a new server redux
(Update: be sure to look at Richard Schafer’s comment below, about how to whitelist in Microsoft’s system.)
Hello to the members of the various listservs hosted by Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC. Five days ago I migrated the listservs to a new server. For many members of the listservs, it looks like this migration has gone largely unnoticed after a few test postings of yesterday and today. But for some members, this migration has not worked out well, because of the behavior of their email service provider, which is called “Outlook” from Microsoft. Continue reading “Listervs have been migrated to a new server redux”
IPWatchdog’s take on the USPTO’s blink on Patent Center
Yesterday the USPTO blinked (a little) about the planned shutdown of PAIR and EFS-Web. Here is IPWatchdog’s take on the blink.
Nineteenth anniversary of the TTABlog
I offer congratulations and thanks to John L. Welch, who has by now given nineteen years of service to the trademark community with the TTABlog. This remarkable blog, to which you should subscribe if you have not already done so, has no equal in the trademark community. This remarkable trademark practitioner, to whom you should drop a thank-you note, has no equal in the trademark community. Continue reading “Nineteenth anniversary of the TTABlog”
A small blink from the USPTO
(Update: see this blog article for a guess as to what “increase usability for sponsored accounts with large amounts of customer numbers” means. )
For the past seven weeks, and up until just a few hours ago, the USPTO was unwavering in its stated resolve to shut down PAIR and EFS-Web at 11:59 PM tonight. As recently as yesterday, when meeting with the National Association of Patent Practitioners, the Commissioner for Patents declined to agree to NAPP’s request to postpone the shutdown date (blog article). Now, on the last possible day, with less than two hours to go before the close of business, the USPTO blinked. Continue reading “A small blink from the USPTO”
NAPP met with USPTO about Patent Center yesterday
The last thing you heard from me about this was on Saturday, November 4, when I reported that the National Association of Patent Practitioners (NAPP) had been invited by the USPTO to attend a videoconference meeting about Patent Center. The USPTO made this invitation after receiving NAPP’s October 31, 2023 letter to the USPTO asking that the USPTO’s planned shutdown of PAIR and EFS-Web be postponed. The meeting was scheduled for 11AM yesterday (ET). Now NAPP has posted a readout of the meeting on LinkedIn. Continue reading “NAPP met with USPTO about Patent Center yesterday”
The most recent USPTO wrong-headedness with Patent Center
I appreciate that the subject line does not narrow things down very much, given a seemingly limitless variety and number of ways that the USPTO has done wrong-headed things with Patent Center over the past five years of its development. But here is a recent breathtakingly wrong-headed move by the USPTO that deserves particular comment — abruptly imposing upon all applicants an extremely disruptive and wholly unnecessary roadblock to the uploading of PDF files. It makes Patent Center, which was already not easy to use given its many bugs, even harder to use.
Continue reading “The most recent USPTO wrong-headedness with Patent Center”