Ant-Like Persistence

I posted a few days ago (blog article) that the EPO had set up a way for users of ISA/EP and IPEA/EP to receive correspondence (such as International Search Reports and Written Opinions) instantly and electronically, which might for some users be preferable to having to wait a long time for such correspondence to show up in slow postal mail.  In that posting I described my own lack of success in setting up such things, particularly because an important button called “+Request PCT Link” was missing in the EPO system.  I have heard back from the EPO people about this.  It turns out you have to ask for this button.  In today’s blog article I offer more information about this new system, that I have heard from the EPO people.  Continue reading “How to get the “+Request PCT Link” button”

(Update:  there is news about how to get the elusive “+Request PCT Link” button — see blog article.)

(Update:  EPO people have provided a summary page about how to do this ISA/EP and IPEA/EP stuff, that is linked here and that I have archived here.)

PCT applicants who are located outside of Europe, and who pick ISA/EP as their ISA, have for some years now faced a frustrating situation:  ISA/EP only sends out its communications by postal mail, not electronically.   A couple of days ago I attended a webinar presented by four nice people at the EPO, in which they explained how their new system will work that will permit applicants to receive International Search Reports and Written Opinions (and other ISA communications) electronically instead of on paper.  This article briefly summarizes my notes from that webinar.  Continue reading “EPO’s new system for PCT applicants to receive ISR/WOs electronically”

(Update:  the webinar took place and I have written an article about it.)

Well, folks, maybe you knew about this imminent webinar a long time ago, but somehow I only learned about it today.  You know how you hate it that EPO only sends ISR/WOs out by postal mail?  Not electronically?  Well, I gather EPO intends to drag itself into the previous decade and plans to provide some electronic way to receive your ISR/WOs.

Yes, an extremely important webinar will take place about 24 hours from now.  Yes, I am giving you a mere 24 hours’ advance notice on this one.  Sorry about that.  Continue reading “Sign up for tomorrow’s EPO webinar on PCT”

In the community of US practitioners who regularly enter the US national phase from a PCT application, it is a well-known problem that it takes an unreasonably long time for the USPTO to mail out a Filing Receipt.  There is, I am sorry to say, a dirty little secret way to get prompt filing receipt in such cases.  Normally I do not make use of it, but just now I plan to use it in one of my cases.  Continue reading “Getting a prompt Filing Receipt in a 371 case?”

Yesterday I posted a blog article asking readers to let me know which ePCT topics they want me to teach sooner than other topics.  I listed fifteen topics.  I provided a very long and tedious questionnaire by which readers could indicate their personal rankings of the fifteen topics, as “urgent” or “average urgency” or “not urgent”.  Fifty-four readers responded, for which I am quite grateful.  Here you can see what they said:  Continue reading “Which ePCT topics you want me to teach sooner than others!”