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Tesla Charging Plugs

Here is a canonical list of domino clicks for adoption of NACS (Tesla-style) electric vehicle charging plugs and charging ports.

As you will see, nearly all makers of EVs for the US market have by now joined the NACS club, the sole holdout being Stellantis (maker of Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Maserati, and Ram).

Dear reader, are you located in the US and do you own or lease an EV that is not a Tesla vehicle?  If so, then I’d like to know where on your vehicle the charging port is located.  Please visit this blog article and complete the survey to let me know where the charging port is located on your vehicle.

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What we wrote to one of our instructing foreign patent firms today about DOCX

Two days ago I published (blog article) the text of a letter that our firm sent to some of our instructing foreign patent firms.  One of the firms wrote back to us about this, asking whether the “auxiliary PDF” option in the DOCX filing path might alleviate the DOCX risks sufficiently to permit following the DOCX filing path, and thus to permit avoidance of the $400 non-DOCX penalty.  Here is how we responded to the instructing foreign patent firm:  Continue reading “What we wrote to one of our instructing foreign patent firms today about DOCX”

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What another patent firm is telling its clients about the $400 non-DOCX penalty

Yesterday (blog article) I posted the text of a letter about the $400 non-DOCX penalty that our firm has sent to a number of the non-US patent firms that send work to us.  Today a partner at another patent firm has provided a copy of a letter that that patent firm is sending to a number of its clients.  Here is that letter:  Continue reading “What another patent firm is telling its clients about the $400 non-DOCX penalty”

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What we are telling non-US patent firms about the DOCX penalty

(See this followup blog post about what we wrote to one of our instructing foreign patent firms after they responded to the letter quoted below.)

Some non-US patent firms entrust to our firm the filing of US patent applications.  We realized that they would need to hear about the $400 non-DOCX penalty that the USPTO started charging on January 17, 2024.  Here is what we wrote about the $400 non-DOCX penalty to some of these non-US patent firms:  Continue reading “What we are telling non-US patent firms about the DOCX penalty”

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Can the attorney skip next Tuesday’s webinar about DOCX risks? Is it okay if the attorney sends a paralegal?

I received an email message today from a paralegal who is signed up for next Tuesday’s webinar entitled “Reducing malpractice risk with $400 non-DOCX penalty that will start on January 17, 2024”.  The paralegal writes:

I am really looking forward to this webinar. I recruited fellow patent paralegals to view the webinar with me (in the same location). ☺

Despite efforts to convince attorneys to attend, there may be some who might not attend.  Will there be a small segment in the webinar where you will provide quality control tips for patent paralegals – who in real life are the ones ultimately responsible for looking after their attorneys?

This paralegal’s email inspired the blog article that you are reading now, in which I try to answer more questions, such as:

Can the attorney skip next Tuesday’s webinar about DOCX risks?

Is it okay if the attorney sends a paralegal?

Here is what I wrote, trying to answer this paralegal’s question.  Continue reading “Can the attorney skip next Tuesday’s webinar about DOCX risks? Is it okay if the attorney sends a paralegal?”

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Webinar: Two-factor authentication for those who use ISA/EP

Do you use ISA/EP?  Do you use an EPO mailbox to receive ISR/WOs from ISA/EP?  Do you use an EPO smart card to log in at the mailbox?  Then you need to migrate from a smart card to a time-based one-time password form of two-factor authentication.  And you need to do it before the end of 2024.  One way to learn how to do this is by attending an EPO webinar that will take place soon.  Continue reading “Webinar: Two-factor authentication for those who use ISA/EP”

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When did the ¼-inch quick-release hex shank begin? Who thought of the ¼-inch quick-release hex shank?

(Update:  thanks to a comment below from alert reader Bernie Greenspan, I eventually located ANSI standard B107.4 which standardized the ¼-inch quick-release hex shank in 1982.)

Many people who try to do projects and repairs around the house or around the office would, I think, report that they experienced two events involving power tools that changed things a lot.   One’s life divides into “how it was before I got an oscillating tool and how it was after” and “how it was before I got an impact driver and how it was after”.  As will be discussed below, the impact driver uses driver bits and drill bits having a “¼-inch quick-release hex shank”.  The main point of this blog article is to raise two seemingly unanswerable questions: