[Patentcenter] Weird ADS upload error in Patent Center

[Neil R. Ormos]

Krista Jacobsen wrote:

> I have an update on the disappearance of Japanese characters from files.
> When it happened to me the first time, I refiled the same document using
> EFS-Web, and all was fine. Now that EFS-Web is going away, of course, that
> no longer remains an option. And it happened to me again in the past week:
> I uploaded a Japanese patent reference to Patent Center (and--this is
> key--Patent Center had NO COMPLAINT about the document), and when I
> downloaded it, the Japanese characters on all but the first page were gone.
> Again I re-filed using EFS-Web, and all was fine again.
> 
> This time I reported it, and I got some information that I wanted to share.
> 
> Apparently, after Patent Center had ingested documents, a downstream "Event
> hub" "further disseminates work." After an investigation, it was determined
> that "some issues were present in the document (e.g., image layers present,
> MacOS being used) that could have created the content loss." (Why didn't
> Patent Center pop any error or warning messages?)
> 
> They are exploring solutions in the "downstream systems to better accept
> documents with these issues."
> 
> It was emphasized to me that this is *not* a Patent Center issue but rather
> a "downstream issue [that] appears to be an isolated issue likely as a
> result of the document submitted to the Office."
> 
> So there you go. Patent Center is totally fine!

It's likely you can fix this problem by flattening the PDF file before uploading it.  

Since Patent Center does not warn you of all alleged "issues" that it, or other elements of the PTO's document-processing workflow, may find in your PDF file after the file has been uploaded, it is probably safest to flatten all PDF files before uploading them to Patent Center.