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<p>Thank you. This is very helpful. I have updated the CP ticket
page to list this CP128 as a "resolved" ticket. See <a
href="https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/#CP128"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/#CP128</a>
. But it is not really "resolved" because the link is not
RESTful. See discussion below regarding new ticket
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/#CP205">https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/#CP205</a> .<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>It is, of course, a source of continued disappointment that the
USPTO does not do us the courtesy of telling us when they fix a
bug like CP128.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>But the USPTO does not even disclose this bug fix on its own
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center">https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center</a> page -- not in
the "known issues" section nor in the "resolved issues" section.
Actually the USPTO never actually disclosed the bug in the "known
issues" section even back when it was a known bug.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>As of right now, EPAS and ETAS have non-identical web links.
EPAS is at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://epas.uspto.gov/">https://epas.uspto.gov/</a> and ETAS is at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://etas.uspto.gov/">https://etas.uspto.gov/</a> . The USPTO hasn't come out and said so,
but one assumes that the USPTO will fashion a new and different
web link for its "son of EPAS/ETAS" system, which until two days
ago was called IPAS (Intellectual Property Assignment System) but
which yesterday got renamed as AC (Assignment Center).</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>And one assumes that the USPTO will soon fashion a content-free
page similar to
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.uspto.gov/patents/efs-web-and-private-pair-be-retired">https://www.uspto.gov/patents/efs-web-and-private-pair-be-retired</a>
as the place where you will end up, after January 21, if you try
to go to <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://epas.uspto.gov/">https://epas.uspto.gov/</a> or <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://etas.uspto.gov/">https://etas.uspto.gov/</a> .<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>I imagine the renaming of IPAS to be called AC was motivated,
within the USPTO, by a desire to mimic the name of the "son of
PAIR/EFS-Web" system, which is "Patent Center".</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Many things baffle me about USPTO's handling of this "File an
assignment of ownership" button that has been broken for as long
as anybody can recall. For many years now, this button has been
broken. The precise wording of the brokenness of the button has
changed from time to time. Starting at least as long ago as
autumn of 2022, the wording of the brokenness was that the button
is "temporarily broken".<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i><b>First baffling thing. </b></i>The first baffling thing is
that this broken button could have been fixed a year ago, quite
easily, with just a couple of mouse clicks. Any competent HTML
coder could have done it a year ago, or could have done it two
years ago. It is such a simple thing to do. It is a matter of a
first mouse click to insert an opening HTML "anchor" tag "<a
href=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://epas.uspto.gov">"https://epas.uspto.gov"</a>>" at the beginning of the "File
an assignment of ownership" button, and is a matter of a second
mouse click to insert the corresponding "/A" tag at the end of the
button. Yes, the USPTO's HTML coder did carry out these two mouse
clicks yesterday. But why couldn't the HTML coder carry out these
two mouse clicks a year ago or two years ago?</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i><b>Second baffling thing.</b></i> The second baffling thing
is, why would the USPTO's HTML coder go to the fuss and bother of
fixing the bug yesterday (January 11, 2024) with a link to EPAS?
After all, EPAS now has one foot in the grave. The USPTO has made
clear that it plans to shut down EPAS on January 21, 2024, a mere
nine days hence. Why not wait until the successor system AC
(Assignment Center) is launched on January 22, 2024, and then that
would be the sensible day to do the two mouse clicks?</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i><b>Third baffling thing. </b></i>The USPTO coders have
actually gone to the trouble of making the link a deep link. If
you try this yourself at home, you will see that if you click on
the button, it does not merely link to <a
href="https://epas.uspto.gov" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://epas.uspto.gov</a>
. It links to a context-specific URL that is closely tied to the
patent application involved on the ack receipt page. For example
when I tried it just now, the button linked to <a
href="https://epas.uspto.gov/epas/load.jsp?iname=H0NW9V8474QR-28645&fromSource=efsWeb">https://epas.uspto.gov/epas/load.jsp?iname=H0NW9V8474QR-28645&fromSource=efsWeb</a>
. This context-specific URL leads to several EPAS fields being
pre-populated. Note that the source is said to be "efsWeb"! One
field that gets pre-populated is the "property" field for the
application number.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Why bother, on January 11, 2024, to go to the fuss and bother of
constructing an orifice within EPAS to receive a deep link from
Patent Center that pre-populates stuff into EPAS?</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Of course this is clearly part of some plan-ahead for what will
happen on January 22, 2024. That's the day that AC (Application
Center, previously known as IPAS) will replace EPAS. Clearly
there will be some effort to make it so that the "File an
assignment of ownership" button will do the deep link into AC and
will also provide a pre-populated "property" field.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i><b>Fourth baffling thing.</b></i> The USPTO promised back in
2018 that Patent Center would be RESTful. But this fixed bug for
the "File an assignment of ownership" button fails to be RESTful.
This is new bug <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/#CP205">https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/#CP205</a> .</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i><b>Fifth baffling thing. </b></i>Why, why, why is this "File
an assignment of ownership" button only present at the ack receipt
page? Why did the USPTO never provide this "File an assignment of
ownership" button on the other place where it belongs, namely on
the workbench page for a patent application? By the way, in PAIR
there always was such a button on the workbench application page.
Guess what? The USPTO failed to bring this feature of PAIR
forward into Patent Center.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i><b>Prediction.</b></i> I predict that when January 22
arrives, the USPTO will trumpet loudly, to anyone who will listen,
how absolutely brilliant it is that the "File an assignment of
ownership" button provides a context-specific link into
Application Center, with the "property" field pre-populated with
the context-related patent application number.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/11/2024 6:17 PM, Scott Nielson via
Patentcenter wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:SJ0PR11MB657531B01F6810F6AA0A6F71B06F2@SJ0PR11MB6575.namprd11.prod.outlook.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<style type="text/css" style="display:none;">P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}</style>
<div class="elementToProof"
style="font-family: "Aptos Serif", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
I filed an IDS today and noticed that on the ack receipt page,
it has a working link to record an assignment. A screenshot is
below.</div>
<div class="elementToProof"><span
style="font-family: "Aptos Serif", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><img
style="" id="imageSelected0" size="41546"
contenttype="image/png" data-outlook-trace="F:1|T:1"
src="cid:part1.q1dtmvGx.PpFjioGn@oppedahl.com" class=""
width="630" height="144"></span></div>
<div class="elementToProof"
style="font-family: "Aptos Serif", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<br>
</div>
<div class="elementToProof"
style="font-family: "Aptos Serif", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
The link works (it is a link to epas) so CP 128 is now fixed.</div>
<div class="elementToProof"
style="font-family: "Aptos Serif", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<br>
</div>
<div class="elementToProof"
style="font-family: "Aptos Serif", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
Of course, I cannot help but wonder whether it will continue
working when the new assignment system is implemented in the
next couple of weeks.</div>
<div class="elementToProof"
style="font-family: "Aptos Serif", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<br>
</div>
<div id="Signature">
<p
style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span
style="font-family: "Aptos Serif", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, serif; color: rgb(31, 56, 100);"><b>Scott
Nielson</b></span></p>
<p
style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span
style="font-family: "Aptos Serif", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, serif; color: black;">801-660-4400</span></p>
</div>
<br>
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</blockquote>
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