Bluesky: @oppedahl.com
One of the easiest things to get wrong, for some programmers in some programming languages, are “boundary values”. Here we see a classic example of a boundary-value mistake by the developers of Patentcenter. Continue reading “A boundary-value programming mistake in Patentcenter”
Hello folks. Here is a warning that I saw today in a USPTO system when I was paying a government fee in Financial Manager:
Credit/Debit Card Expiration Dates
Due to a recent system upgrade, some card expiration dates may have been converted to an incorrect month for cards stored within Financial Manager. …
Try to guess, dear reader, what the next few words were. For example, maybe the next few words explained that the USPTO was working to restore the expiration dates to their correct values, but that this might take a day or two, and they apologize for the inconvenience. Continue reading “USPTO corrupts credit card expiration dates in FM”
As we know, the “springing forward” of clocks for Daylight Saving Time happens at about 2AM. This “radio controlled” wristwatch does the DST adjustments automatically. I happened to be awake when it happened just now, and you can see a video recording of the automatic adjustment carried out by this wristwatch.
It’s that time of year again. The time of year when it is important to keep track of the fact that Daylight Saving Time is different in Switzerland from the way it is in the United States. Continue reading “Filing at the International Bureau and Daylight Saving Time”
The USPTO blinked yet again yesterday on DOCX. The bad things that the USPTO was planning to do starting April 3, 2023 have now been postponed to June 30, 2023, according to USPTO speakers during a DOCX propaganda webinar yesterday. At above right is a screen grab by alert listserv member Michael Dryja of a presentation slide during the webinar. Continue reading “Status of DOCX initiative as of right now redux”
This blog article talks about using an automation controller to keep a server room from getting too hot. Continue reading “Cooling a server room”
(Update: the USPTO has blinked a third time about its $400 non-DOCX penalty.)
In this blog article, I will describe the status of the USPTO’s DOCX initiative as of today. What I describe here is how it is going to get worse for patent applicants and patent practitioners over the next few months, absent the USPTO choosing to “blink” again and perhaps postpone some of the bad things that are imminent. Continue reading “Status of DOCX initiative as of right now”
This blog article is directed to paralegals and legal assistants and secretaries and administrative assistants.
I am going to make a stab-in-the-dark guess that at least one of your attorney bosses is avoiding learning about ePCT because they want to assume that you will be the one who keeps on top of knowing how to use ePCT. Continue reading “Paralegals! Try to get your attorneys to sign up for this webinar”
(Update: The oral argument took place on December 7, 2023, and you can see a transcript of the oral argument. )
It will be recalled that there is a an appeal pending in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit against the USPTO’s rules requiring every trademark applicant to reveal where he or she sleeps at night. The appellant’s reply brief has just been filed. I expect the case will now proceed to oral argument. Continue reading ““Where you sleep at night” appeal is now fully briefed”
It is discouraging to see a recently increased level of passive-aggressiveness on the part of the USPTO about its role as an Accessing Office in the DAS system. This blog article briefly describes four ways in which the USPTO has recently started acting as if it wishes that the DAS system did not exist at all. Continue reading “USPTO is now passive-aggressive about accessing from DAS”