[Patentcenter] By the way, if you want to write your own letter to Inspector General --

[David Boundy]

You file it at https://www.govcomhotline.com/DOC1

For these letters, quality is more important than quantity.   Some degree
of genuine analysis, fact, citation, etc is important  (if your letter is
too flimsy, IG will just ignore it).  This is something only for the
internally-self-motivated -- all you will get directly is an email "Thank
you so much, we have forwarded your concerns to the agency, and your
complaint number is 23-4567."  You will get no direct instant gratification
from the IG.  But at some point, the agency will have to write a response,
and the IG will read that carefully, and the IG report will flag your
concern and you will get some kind of an answer.

I know the PTO already has five complaints.   If they get more, it will
make it really hard for them to decommission EFS-Web before Patent Center
is really good and ready.

I name the "violating party" as "Patent and Trademark Office, IT Office."
You don't have to fill in every blank.

The important thing is credibility and sound analysis -- make a genuine
effort to demonstrate that you're trying to be helpful with facts.  When
I'm writing, I take on the mindset that I am just neutrally pointing out a
problem that *of course* the agency wouldn't tolerate of itself, *if they
only knew*.  I'm just being a good citizen reporting a broken wire or
something that poor busy overworked senior officials must have overlooked,
and they would have fixed *if they only knew*.  Give a specific anecdote.
If you ask to maintain anonymity, the IG will keep you anonymous vis-a-vis
the PTO.   I think you can give serial numbers and similar
confidential-but-not-privileged information, especially stuff that will
eventually be public anyway -- so far as I know, letters are not
published.  They will be forwarded to the PTO, but not published.

If you want, you can include the sentence "This complaint provides
additional information to supplement complaints  23-0900, 24-0055, 24-0119,
and 24-0124" that's probably all to the good -- let them know that it's not
just two cranks named Oppedahl and Boundy.

Examples from me and from Carl:

Letter of Intellectual Property Professionals to OMB/OIRA and to Commerce
Inspector General re introduction of a new bug in Patent Center (Nov. 4,
2023) <https://ssrn.com/abstract=4623999>

Letter of 82 Intellectual Property Professionals to OIRA and Commerce IG
relating to non-readiness of Patent Center, requesting delay of retirement
of EFS-Web and Private PAIR (Nov. 1, 2023)
<https://ssrn.com/abstract=4620375>

Letter of PTAAARMIGAN to Peg Gustafson, Inspector General for the
Department of Commerce, re waste, fraud, abuse, and gross mismanagement in
Patent Center (Oct. 16, 2023) <https://ssrn.com/abstract=4604104>

Letter of One Hundred Seventy-Eight Members of the Patent Center Listserv
to Kathi Vidal and Peg Gustafson (Sept. 29, 2023)
<https://blog.oppedahl.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/20230929-letter.pdf>


-- 


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*David Boundy *| Partner | Potomac Law Group, PLLC

P.O. Box 590638, Newton, MA  02459

Tel (646) 472-9737 | Fax: (202) 318-7707

*dboundy at potomaclaw.com <dboundy at potomaclaw.com>* | *www.potomaclaw.com
<http://www.potomaclaw.com>*

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