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A Budapest Treaty deposit requirement in an industrial design case!?

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Here’s a nice thing to smile about over your morning caffeine fix. 

Like many loyal readers of this blog, we at OPLF check the status of our cases in Patentcenter (or, in the old days, in PAIR) every day or so on general principles.  It lets us know for example if an Office Action is imminent or if an Allowance is imminent.  

Just now our daily status check revealed this case in our docket, in which the status is “allowed, Notice of Allowance not yet mailed”.  This means the Examiner has allowed the case, but we have not yet received the Notice of Allowance.  So let’s see how alert you are at this time of the morning.  What’s very much out of the ordinary about this transaction history in this “allowed case”?  Well, the answer is in the title of the blog post, so you probably already knew where I was going with this one.  Continue reading “A Budapest Treaty deposit requirement in an industrial design case!?”

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Patentcenter uses wrong words on links

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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”

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Patentcenter should check uploaded ADS for a signature

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When an ADS turns out to be unsigned, or not correctly signed, or not signed by a practitioner, it leads to a cascade of problems.  It often takes months or a lot of money, or both, to fix the problems.   It would be trivially easy for Patentcenter to check an uploaded computer-readable Form PTO/AIA/14 (Application Data Sheet) such as we see at right, for a signature.  But Patentcenter does not do so.

Patentcenter should check an uploaded ADS for a signature and should display warnings as needed.  This is Feature Request FR24. Continue reading “Patentcenter should check uploaded ADS for a signature”

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Patentcenter should validate the “non-inventor applicant” excuse field

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When a filer uploads Form PTO/AIA/14 (Application Data Sheet), Patentcenter should carry out validations.  As mentioned here, Patentcenter should validate priority claims against DAS.  This blog article points out that Patentcenter should validate the “non-inventor applicant” excuse field.

This is Feature Request FR23.  

Continue reading “Patentcenter should validate the “non-inventor applicant” excuse field”

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EUIPO will join DAS on July 11, 2020

I am delighted to report that the European Union Intellectual Property Office will begin participating in the DAS system as a Depositing Office for industrial designs starting on July 11, 2020.  This comes after Eighty-four practitioners and applicants asked EUIPO to join DAS.  

For more information see the Notice at the WIPO DAS web site.

By the way, if you are glad to see this result, maybe take a look at the list of the eighty-four signers, and if you know one or more of them, maybe drop them a “thank you”.