[Patentcenter] Old Bug, New Gripe

[Andrea R. Jacobson]

I have raised this before and was told by the PTO that it will show the sponsored person’s name unless the filer makes a change to the package.

From: Patentcenter <patentcenter-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Dan Feigelson via Patentcenter
Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2023 4:34 PM
To: For bug reports, feature requests, and tips and tricks about Patent Center. <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Dan Feigelson <djf at iliplaw.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentcenter] Old Bug, New Gripe



On Thu, Dec 7, 2023 at 10:59 PM Alan Taboada via Patentcenter <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:
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).

Not just from a law firm perspective. If for some reason there's a problem, and someone needs to attest to having filed the document, that false statement by the PTO is going to cause headaches. It's inexcusable for the PTO to say "filed by" X when in fact it was filed by Y. But then we also have things like status being indicated as "issued" when the issuance will only occur in a few weeks, or "existing submissions" when they mean "follow-on submission in existing application".

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