[Patentcenter] Patent Center Trouble Ticket CP128 Fixed

Fri Jan 12 04:34:20 EST 2024

Thank you.  This is very helpful.  I have updated the CP ticket page to 
list this CP128 as a "resolved" ticket.  See 
https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/#CP128 .  But it is not really 
"resolved" because the link is not RESTful.  See discussion below 
regarding new ticket https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/#CP205 .

It is, of course, a source of continued disappointment that the USPTO 
does not do us the courtesy of telling us when they fix a bug like CP128.

But the USPTO does not even disclose this bug fix on its own 
https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center page -- not in the 
"known issues" section nor in the "resolved issues" section. Actually 
the USPTO never actually disclosed the bug in the "known issues" section 
even back when it was a known bug.

As of right now, EPAS and ETAS have non-identical web links. EPAS is at 
https://epas.uspto.gov/ and ETAS is at https://etas.uspto.gov/ .  The 
USPTO hasn't come out and said so, but one assumes that the USPTO will 
fashion a new and different web link for its "son of EPAS/ETAS" system, 
which until two days ago was called IPAS (Intellectual Property 
Assignment System) but which yesterday got renamed as AC (Assignment 
Center).

And one assumes that the USPTO will soon fashion a content-free page 
similar to 
https://www.uspto.gov/patents/efs-web-and-private-pair-be-retired as the 
place where you will end up, after January 21, if you try to go to 
https://epas.uspto.gov/ or https://etas.uspto.gov/ .

I imagine the renaming of IPAS to be called AC was motivated, within the 
USPTO, by a desire to mimic the name of the "son of PAIR/EFS-Web" 
system, which is "Patent Center".

Many things baffle me about USPTO's handling of this "File an assignment 
of ownership" button that has been broken for as long as anybody can 
recall.  For many years now, this button has been broken.  The precise 
wording of the brokenness of the button has changed from time to time.  
Starting at least as long ago as autumn of 2022, the wording of the 
brokenness was that the button is "temporarily broken".

/*First baffling thing. */The first baffling thing is that this broken 
button could have been fixed a year ago, quite easily, with just a 
couple of mouse clicks.  Any competent HTML coder could have done it a 
year ago, or could have done it two years ago.  It is such a simple 
thing to do.  It is a matter of a first mouse click to insert an opening 
HTML "anchor" tag "<a href="https://epas.uspto.gov">" at the beginning 
of the "File an assignment of ownership" button, and is a matter of a 
second mouse click to insert the corresponding "/A" tag at the end of 
the button.  Yes, the USPTO's HTML coder did carry out these two mouse 
clicks yesterday.  But why couldn't the HTML coder carry out these two 
mouse clicks a year ago or two years ago?

/*Second baffling thing.*/  The second baffling thing is, why would the 
USPTO's HTML coder go to the fuss and bother of fixing the bug yesterday 
(January 11, 2024) with a link to EPAS? After all, EPAS now has one foot 
in the grave.  The USPTO has made clear that it plans to shut down EPAS 
on January 21, 2024, a mere nine days hence.  Why not wait until the 
successor system AC (Assignment Center) is launched on January 22, 2024, 
and then that would be the sensible day to do the two mouse clicks?

/*Third baffling thing. */The USPTO coders have actually gone to the 
trouble of making the link a deep link.  If you try this yourself at 
home, you will see that if you click on the button, it does not merely 
link to https://epas.uspto.gov .  It links to a context-specific URL 
that is closely tied to the patent application involved on the ack 
receipt page.  For example when I tried it just now, the button linked 
to 
https://epas.uspto.gov/epas/load.jsp?iname=H0NW9V8474QR-28645&fromSource=efsWeb 
<https://epas.uspto.gov/epas/load.jsp?iname=H0NW9V8474QR-28645&fromSource=efsWeb> 
.  This context-specific URL leads to several EPAS fields being 
pre-populated.  Note that the source is said to be "efsWeb"!  One field 
that gets pre-populated is the "property" field for the application number.

Why bother, on January 11, 2024, to go to the fuss and bother of 
constructing an orifice within EPAS to receive a deep link from Patent 
Center that pre-populates stuff into EPAS?

Of course this is clearly part of some plan-ahead for what will happen 
on January 22, 2024.  That's the day that AC (Application Center, 
previously known as IPAS) will replace EPAS.  Clearly there will be some 
effort to make it so that the "File an assignment of ownership" button 
will do the deep link into AC and will also provide a pre-populated 
"property" field.

/*Fourth baffling thing.*/  The USPTO promised back in 2018 that Patent 
Center would be RESTful.  But this fixed bug for the "File an assignment 
of ownership" button fails to be RESTful. This is new bug 
https://patentcenter-tickets.oppedahl.com/#CP205 .

/*Fifth baffling thing. */Why, why, why is this "File an assignment of 
ownership" button only present at the ack receipt page?  Why did the 
USPTO never provide this "File an assignment of ownership" button on the 
other place where it belongs, namely on the workbench page for a patent 
application?  By the way, in PAIR there always was such a button on the 
workbench application page. Guess what?  The USPTO failed to bring this 
feature of PAIR forward into Patent Center.

/*Prediction.*/  I predict that when January 22 arrives, the USPTO will 
trumpet loudly, to anyone who will listen, how absolutely brilliant it 
is that the "File an assignment of ownership" button provides a 
context-specific link into Application Center, with the "property" field 
pre-populated with the context-related patent application number.

On 1/11/2024 6:17 PM, Scott Nielson via Patentcenter wrote:
> I filed an IDS today and noticed that on the ack receipt page, it has 
> a working link to record an assignment. A screenshot is below.
>
> The link works (it is a link to epas) so CP 128 is now fixed.
>
> Of course, I cannot help but wonder whether it will continue working 
> when the new assignment system is implemented in the next couple of weeks.
>
> *Scott Nielson*
>
> 801-660-4400
>
>
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