[Patentcenter] our Glorious Patent Center is offline

[Leigh T]

FOIA experts, could a FOIA request help elucidate how the PatentCenter
backup system is set up? The rationale being that if Carl’s scenario is
correct, stakeholders could make specific requests to the USPTO and
Congress for improvements that might prevent or decrease future failures.

On Wed, Jan 3, 2024 at 7:17 PM Carl Oppedahl via Patentcenter <
patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:

> USPTO people seem to have lied to us about the existence and perfect
> reliability of a backup Patent Center system that supposedly clicks into
> view in an automatic way whenever there is a failure in the main Patent
> Center system.
>
> One of the systems is called "Blue" and the other is called "Green".  I
> bet they are in the same building, connected to the Internet by the same
> single buried cable.  Powered by the same single power supply.
>
> Supposedly some perfectly reliable switching device makes it so that users
> get connected to Blue or to Green in a way that is invisible to the user,
> with the same URL (web address) being used regardless of which of the two
> systems is the one that is connected for users to use.
>
> I bet the USPTO will never be even the tinest bit forthcoming about what
> it is that failed for these fifty minutes, that made it so that nobody
> could do anything (including filing a patent application) for these fifty
> minutes.
>
> Maybe both the Blue machine and the Green machine stopped working because
> the single power supply that powers both of them failed for the
> fifty-minute time period.
>
> Maybe the single Internet connection that connects both machines to users
> failed for fifty minutes.
>
> Maybe the switching device that determines whether the user is connected
> to the Blue machine or the Green machine had its own crash for the
> fifty-minute time period.
>
> But I bet the USPTO will never come clean with an actual truthful
> explanation.
>
>
>
> On 1/3/2024 3:46 PM, David M. Longo via Patentcenter wrote:
>
> Based on a call from our staff to the EBC at 4:55pm Eastern, the USPTO
> reported that Patent Center had already been offline for 20 minutes at that
> point and indicated that they had received enough calls to send up an
> escalation ticket.  Patent Center didn’t come back to life until about
> 5:25pm Eastern, *meaning we had a complete outage of Patent Center for 50
> minutes*.  With the only alternative filing methods now being paper, fax,
> or certified mail, this episode only reinforces our lack of confidence in
> the single Patent Center system with no electronic backup (like EFS-Web
> Contingency).   Another sigh….
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> _Dave
>
>
>
> *David M. Longo, Ph.D.*
>
> Partner, Attorney at Law
> *Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, LLP* | 1940 Duke Street,
> Alexandria, Virginia 22314 | Direct: 703-412-1791 | Main: 703-413-3000 |
> dlongo at oblon.com | www.oblon.com |
>
>
>
> *From:* David M. Longo
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 3, 2024 5:21 PM
> *To:* patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com
> *Subject:* our Glorious Patent Center is offline
>
>
>
> And has been for awhile this evening (+/-5pm Eastern on Jan. 3).  It
> returns the cleanest blank page you will ever see:
>
>
>
>
>
> Such a robust system.  Sigh.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> _Dave
>
>
>
> *David M. Longo, Ph.D.*
>
> Partner, Attorney at Law
> *Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, LLP* | 1940 Duke Street,
> Alexandria, Virginia 22314 | Direct: 703-412-1791 | Main: 703-413-3000 |
> dlongo at oblon.com | www.oblon.com |
>
>
> This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and
> may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized
> review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the
> intended recipient, please contact Oblon by reply email and destroy all
> copies of the original message.
>
> --
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