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<p>Yes. It's like there is some weird game of chicken going on.
Suppose WIPO had a price for using DAS, like USPTO having to pay
ten dollars to retrieve a PD from DAS. Then in a weird sick way
we could understand the USPTO deciding to slow-walk the retrieval
until after some of the events in which the filer might have let
the filing go abandoned. You know, like if on average one out of
ten US filings go abandoned before the filing receipt, then they
save ten dollars for that one case.</p>
<p>Except, guess what, WIPO does not charge any money for
retrievals. So that explanation for the foot-dragging does not
work.</p>
<p>What's really going on, I believe, is that even though it would
absolutely be the right thing to do, the USPTO software developers
have not done the bit of coding for this retrieval to be
automated. This is coding that a handful of competent coders
(drawn from this listserv, for example) could do on a weekend, if
given pizza and soft drinks, and they would have Saturday
afternoon and all of Sunday left over. But no, the USPTO has not
done it. So this task remains (even after more than a decade of
DAS existing) a purely manual task carried out by means of fingers
moving on keyboards. <br>
</p>
<p>And so the reason for the foot-dragging is, the USPTO wanting to
save the internal labor cost of the fingers on keyboards until
after some of the events in which the filer might have let the
filing go abandoned. You know, like if on average one out of ten
US filings go abandoned before the filing receipt, then they save
the fingers-on-keyboards internal cost for that one case.</p>
<p>Oh and never mind that if only the USPTO were to incur that
one-time cost for coding and automating the retrieval, this would
save the recurring cost of the fingers on keyboards.</p>
<p>And it would serve the paying customers better.</p>
<p>The USPTO's failure in this area seemingly knows no bounds,
because it's not just the foot-dragging result.</p>
<p>Say you go to ePCT to enter in an application number and DAS
access code, for the IB to retrieve some PD. <i><b>In real time</b></i>
the ePCT system cross-checks the entered application number and
DAS code against DAS. If the user had gotten a digit wrong, the
user is told this <i><b>in real time.</b></i></p>
<p>But in the USPTO systems, the USPTO goes out of its way to avoid
doing any validation or cross-checking of the PD application
number or DAS access code. USPTO could do this when you load your
ADS into Patent Center. If USPTO were to do this (which costs no
money to do in a recurring way, and in fact saves the USPTO money
later by averting delays and mistakes and do-overs), this would be
applicant-friendly. But USPTO does not do it.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/16/2024 6:22 AM, Dan Feigelson via
Patentpractice wrote:<br>
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<div>Filed an application that claims priority only from a
non-US application. Foreign priority app is in DAS (I checked
with WIPO). Provided the USPTO with the foreign application
no. and the DAS retrieval code on an ADS at the time of
filing. Got the filing receipt, and it acknowledges the
foreign priority claim and that the DAS code was provided, and
says that the USPTO "will attempt to electronically retrieve"
the priority doc. But of course, the p.d. isn't yet in the
electronic file.</div>
<div><br>
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<div>That the PTO waits to retrieve the p.d. is not news, Carl
and others have written about it. But it still bugs me: how
hard would it be for the PTO to retrieve the document NOW
instead of waiting?</div>
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<div>Dan</div>
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