When the City of Denver sold the bonds that would pay for the construction of Denver International Airport (to replace Stapleton airport), there was language in the bonds that imposed a contractual obligation: on the day that DIA was placed into service, deep grooves would be cut into each of the runways at Stapleton.
The purpose of the grooves was, of course, to ensure that no airplane could safely take off or land at Stapleton. (Not even in an emergency!) This gave a guarantee to the bondholders that they would receive the entire revenue stream of Denver’s takeoff and landing fees.
And indeed the grooves did get cut into each of the runways at Stapleton. This happened on February 28, 1995.
New bugs keep creeping into Patent Center with each passing day, presumably caused by USPTO fixes to previous bugs. New bugs with file naming conventions and fee payments got created on November 2 and November 3.
Assuming that the USPTO does follow through on its plan to shut down PAIR and EFS-Web on November 8 (see countdown clock), will the USPTO cut (metaphorical) deep grooves into PAIR and EFS-Web? Or will the USPTO preserve PAIR and EFS-Web in some limbo so that they can be turned back on if some future USPTO-created bug in Patent Center makes it unusable?
What’s your guess? Please post a comment below.
I’m sticking with my prediction of a few weeks ago, deep grooves as you say. And even if they change their minds after a Patent Center disaster, and decide to back fill the grooves, they will fill them with sand, thinking that will work fine. Any restart they might try will be FUBAR.