[Patentcenter] Old Bug, New Gripe

[Alan Taboada]

I don't recall seeing this discussed here and it is not listed in the Patent Center Trouble Ticket page.

In one frequently used filing workflow for patent practitioners, we have a sponsored administrator or paralegal upload documents to Patent Center on the responsible practitioner's behalf and save those submissions for review and ultimate filing by the practitioner.  I know others may have variations on this theme, but we like the idea that the person whose signature is on the papers or who is otherwise responsible for the filing is the same person who reviews the documents and ultimately presses the submit button in Patent Center.  The role of the admin/paralegal in this scenario is to upload and save the documents only, and not to file.

However, when we log in to Patent Center and view the saved submissions (which is another issue in that we can see any submission under any customer number we are associated with and not just the saved submissions intended for us, as it used to be in EFS-web), and review and file the desired documents, the filing receipt incorrectly states, "FILED BY: [the person who uploaded and saved the files and not the person who viewed the saved submission and actually pressed the submit button thereby filing the documents]."

I think it goes without saying that the filing receipt should show the person who filed the documents in any field entitled "FILED BY."

To repeat a common refrain, "in EFS-web...," the filing receipt actually showed you the person who pressed submit.  And if that person was the sponsored admin or paralegal, the filing receipt showed their name AND the name of the sponsoring party.  Specifically, the Electronic Acknowledgement Receipt from EFS had a "Filer:" field and a "Filer Authorized By:" field.

The USPTO may not care about such things, but from a law firm perspective, it is useful to know such things (and for such things to be accurate).
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