(Corrected as to the name of the movie.)
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, says a beloved song in the movie Mary Poppins. In the case of the ill-conceived DOCX initiative at the USPTO, the spoonful of sugar offered by the USPTO to try to induce filers to swallow the bitter-tasting DOCX initiative has been what it calls the “auxiliary PDF”. The USPTO has now blinked for a second time on the auxiliary PDF.
The idea of the auxiliary PDF is that if USPTO’s DOCX engine messes up an issued patent, then the patent owner might have a chance of forcing the USPTO to correct things based upon the content of the auxiliary PDF. Here is the March 2022 quick reference guide describing the auxiliary PDF e-filing process in Patentcenter. It became possible to file auxiliary PDFs starting on April 28, 2022.
The USPTO initially said that the last possible date for filing of auxiliary PDFs was December 31, 2022 (see Federal Register notice).
The USPTO blinked and reset the last possible date for filing of auxiliary PDFs as June 30, 2023 (see Federal Register notice).
The USPTO has now blinked a second time, saying that there is now no ending date for filing of auxiliary PDFs (see Federal Register notice).
The USPTO has also blinked on its initial policy of a three-year destruction period for the auxililary PDFs.
The original Federal Register notice defining the auxiliary PDF said that the USPTO would not preserve the auxiliary PDF in the “permanent record” except in the special case where the applicant or practitioner happened to detect any USPTO mistakes and filed a corresponding petition, all within three years of issuance of the patent.
The USPTO has now blinked on the three-year destruction period for the auxiliary PDF. The new Federal Register notice says the USPTO will preserve the auxiliary PDF for “at least 25 years after the patent grant” regardless of whether or when a petition is filed.
The auxiliary PDF has always been inadequate and continues to be inadequate to protect applicants and practitioners from the risks of e-filing in DOCX format according to the present initiative, for several reasons, as I will detail in a subsequent blog article. But it is clear from today’s Federal Register notice about the auxiliary PDF that the USPTO realizes its DOCX initiative has been a disaster and the the USPTO simply must take some corrective action if the DOCX initiative is to be made at least somewhat acceptable for applicants and practitioners.
Carl,
Julie Andrews as “Mary Poppins” sings “A Spoonful of Sugar” but with your efforts, DOCX filing will soon open its magic umbrella and fly away.
Thank you for commenting. I have corrected it in the blog article.