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<p>I guess we have already plowed this ground several times by now
...</p>
<p>is it just me, or are there lots of bad things about Ass Center?</p>
<p><i><b>Address book still does not work. </b></i>Ass Center
keeps teasing me by suggesting that I ought to be able to drag and
drop a "name" from my address book (in MyUSPTO) into a recordation
project. But as of right now, even after months of arm-wrestling
with Ass Center, I have not managed to ever bring in a "name" from
my address book into a recordation project in Ass Center. </p>
<p>Has anybody ever successfully brought in a "name" from their
MyUSPTO address book into a recordation project in Ass Center?</p>
<p><i><b>Address book does not permit a "name" to be a legal
entity. </b></i>When I am trying to record an assignment (in
Ass Center) from (say) company A to company B, the two companies
are just that. Companies. Not human beings. And yet in the
MyUSPTO system, as far as I can see it is impossible to add an
address book entry that is just that -- a company. As far as I
can see, the MyUSPTO system demands that I provide a first name
and a last name of some human being at that company. In my
(unsuccessful) efforts to use the address book as a source of a
name for an Ass Center project, I have entered "none" into each of
those fields in My USPTO. But if and when I ever do successfully
drag and drop a "name" into Ass Center, I am worried that the
(non-existent) first name and last name of the (non-existent)
human being inside the company will show up in the recordation
cover sheet. <br>
</p>
<p>Has anybody found a way to create a "company" in their MyUSPTO
address book that is free from detritus relating to a non-existent
human being?</p>
<p><b>Ass Center uses weird terminology. </b>The true sequence of
events with any assignment recordation system is that at the time
of clicking around in the recordation system, the assignment
already got created <i><b>in the past</b></i>, and already got
signed <i><b>in the past</b></i>. The actual situation is that
the property already changed hands <i><b>in the past</b></i>.
The only thing being accomplished by clicking around in the
recordation system is that some event <i><b>that already happened
in the past</b></i> is being memorialized now with a precious
Reel and Frame Number. So why is it that Ass Center uses buttons
labeled "Create Assignment"? It is simply false for the USPTO
developers to characterize the activity in Ass Center as
"creating" an assignment. Again, to say this as clearly as I can,
to the extent that any "creating" of an assignment happened, it
happened in the past, perhaps days or weeks ago.</p>
<p>As a second example of weird terminology, when I paid my
government fee in Ass Center, what showed up next on the screen
was this message:<br>
</p>
<blockquote>Thank you, your payment has been processed. Please sign
and submit your application by selecting the Continue button.<br>
</blockquote>
This is nuts. I am not submitting an "application". Nowhere in Ass
Center is any user "submitting an application". This terminology
ought to be corrected in Ass Center.<br>
<p><i><b>Ass center forces the use of a wrong s-signature. </b></i>Years
ago I adopted an s-signature (virgule signature) for use at the
USPTO in compliance with 37 CFR § 1.4. It is a particular
character between the two slashes (virgules). Back in the days of
ETAS, I was able to enter my own s-signature.<br>
</p>
<p>But in Ass Center, the system forces me to use a different set of
characters between the slashes. It forces me to "sign" using
something that is not the same as the s-signature that I adopted
years ago in compliance with 37 CFR § 1.4. This seems wrong to
me.<br>
</p>
<p><b><i>Odd sequence of steps toward the end. </i></b>The USPTO
developers picked a nonsense sequence of events for the last few
steps. Here is what actually happens based on the design
decisions that were made by the USPTO developers in Ass Center:</p>
<ol>
<li>construct your recordation cover sheet</li>
<li>upload the document to be recorded</li>
<li>carry out a preview of the document to be recorded</li>
<li>look once again at your recordation cover sheet</li>
<li>click around to say that you are really really sure about your
recordation cover sheet</li>
<li>but don't sign your recordation cover sheet</li>
<li>click around on the "pay.gov" web site to pay the government
fee</li>
<li>hopefully the "pay.gov" web site does not crash as it
hopefully transfers you back to Ass Center</li>
<li>hopefully Ass Center does not crash at this critical juncture</li>
<li>click around to sign your recordation cover sheet</li>
<li>the "signing" apparently also counts as "clicking the submit
button"</li>
</ol>
<p>Back in the days of ETAS, step 6 was to sign the recordation
cover sheet. Once the money was paid, the filer was done.</p>
<p>But now in Ass Center, apparently the developers have set it up
that paying the money is not enough, and the reason that paying
the money is not enough is that the recordation cover sheet
remains incomplete (it has not been signed). Once the money is
paid, more mouse clicks are required to accomplish "signing" of
the recordation cover sheet.</p>
<p>But what if pay.gov somehow fails to bring the user back to Ass
Center? What if pay.gov has some hiccup at that point?</p>
<p>What if Ass Center fails to correctly handle the transfer from
pay.gov back to Ass Center? What if Ass Center has some hiccup at
that point, or crashes at that point? As far as I can see, the
recordation would fail. The user would have lost the money that
was paid, and the user would never actually ever have any chance
of receiving the precious Reel and Frame Number.</p>
<p>And while we are enumerating the many single points of failure
that could happen at this point, it is not only crashes and
hiccups at the USPTO. What if the user has the bad luck to have
his or her computer crash at any point during steps 8 or 9 or 10?
What if the user has the bad luck to have some disruption of the
user's Internet connection at any point during steps 8 or 9 or 10?
<br>
</p>
<p>Again, back in the days of ETAS, there were no single points of
failure subsequent to handing over the money. The instant that
your credit card got charged, you were done and you could relax.
But with Ass Center, any of half a dozen single points of failure
can lead to a situation where (a) the filer has paid the money and
(b) the filer will never receive the precious Reel and Frame
Number.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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