Patentcenter PCT-related defect is actually a feature?

I was gobsmacked during today’s USPTO webinar entitled How to make a smooth transition to Patentcenter.  The USPTO doubled down on a serious PCT-related defect in Patentcenter, saying that it is actually supposedly a feature, not a bug.

Everybody knows that you are not supposed to enter the US national stage twice from any single PCT application.  Or, to state it more plainly, it is legally impossible to enter the US national stage twice from any single PCT application.

Everybody knows this, that is, except the presenter in today’s USPTO webinar entitled How to make a smooth transition to Patentcenter.  This is a webinar that is intended to help experienced users of EFS-Web and Private PAIR make the transition to Patentcenter.

EFS-Web guards against the inadvertent duplicate entry into the US national stage from a PCT application.  Of course one of the stated design goals for Patentcenter, since its origin in 2018, is that all features from EFS-Web are supposed to be brought forward into Patentcenter.  Indeed the USPTO has announced “mission accomplished” for this stated design goal.  The USPTO says on its web site:

Patent Center has 100% of the functionality of EFS-Web, Public and Private PAIR …

This is patently false (blog article), but USPTO has not corrected this false statement.  One of the ways that USPTO has failed to provide “100% of the functionality of EFS-Web” in Patentcenter is that Patentcenter fails to guard against duplicate attempts to enter the US national stage from a PCT application.  This defect was reported to the USPTO on February 20, 2023 in trouble ticket CP99 (deep link to trouble ticket page).

During today’s USPTO webinar entitled How to make a smooth transition to Patentcenter, an attendee asked about this defect in Patentcenter.  I was gobsmacked to hear the USPTO presenter actually doubling down on the defect, stating that it is supposedly a feature, not a bug.  You can hear the words of the presenter here (MP3 file) and you can play the audio file here:

Here is a transcript:

Attendee question.  In EFS-Web, the system guards against a possible duplicate attempt to enter the US national stage from a particular PCT application.  Patentcenter fails to do so.  Why is that?

USPTO answer.  Stakeholder feedback indicated that Patentcenter may be implemented to allow more than one 371 filing, which may be desirable in situations where, for example, a unity-of-invention restriction was made during the international phase, to separate the claims into multiple groups.  So that was a great question, and hopefully that answer will shed some light on that for you.

Hopefully what will happen soon is that the USPTO will send out a corrective email message to everybody who attended today’s USPTO webinar, letting them know that the presenter was completely wrong about this.

And hopefully, what will happen soon is that the USPTO will correct this defect in Patentcenter, which was reported to the USPTO on February 20, 2023.