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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/19/2024 6:04 PM, Patent Lawyer via
Patentcenter wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:BYAPR12MB47435C019B530282D5FC95FAA7772@BYAPR12MB4743.namprd12.prod.outlook.com">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">When
United Airlines and Continental merged, the newly merged
airline used Continental's reservation system (at the
backend), but United still used its front end.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">I
discovered this when I booked an international flight using
the United online reservation system. The reservation was
given a sort of "tentative" status, which lasted about a
day, after which it was confirmed. I called United to find
out what was going on and was told that for some
international flights, the reservations made on the United
system were being printed out and then manually entered into
the Continental reservation system. I was booking with
United’s loyalty points (“miles”), which may have been the
reason for this convoluted process.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">(I may
have it wrong as to whose system was retained, but I know
they printed out bookings from one reservation system and
manually entered them into the other.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Maybe the
PTO is doing the same thing.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Maybe the
PTO has been taking the assignment data we enter into the
current (soon-to-be-legacy) system, and maybe they are
manually entering it into their new system.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">And maybe
they are finding more about the NWONW (New way of not
working!)</span></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>The idea of DOCX at the USPTO is to capture computer-readable
characters from patent applicants, so that later the issuance of a
patent can be done from those computer-readable characters instead
of using OCR'd or hand-keyed information. But old-timers among us
will recall that this was not the USPTO's first try at this. The
first try was ePave, for which our firm was one of the
beta-testers. This was around maybe 1997 or so. Anyway, the
filer would convert the to-be-filed patent application into XML
and would eventually upload it into USPTO's ePave system. The
idea was that the computer-readable characters in the XML file
could later be employed in the process of issuing the patent.</p>
<p>The ePave system ended up a complete failure due to limited
uptake by users, and the USPTO eventually scrapped it.</p>
<p>But during the time that ePave was in service, the way that an
ePave-filed patent application would reach an Examiner was ... you
guessed it! A USPTO clerk would take the XML-formatted patent
application that had just been e-filed by the beta tester, and
would print it out on paper. And the paper patent application
would get inserted into the same USPTO workflow as was used for a
patent application that a filer had sent to the USPTO by Express
Mail. And at issuance time, the typesetting of the to-be-issued
patent was accomplished by OCR and hand-keying.<br>
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