[Patentcenter] Faxes to the PTO - some legacy things do work

[Carl Oppedahl]

Yeah, I imagine most practitioners do always file the declaration with 
the application.  I imagine I am quite out of the ordinary, having to 
hand in inventors' declarations later.

What happens to me is, I keep fiddling with the text of the patent 
application, particularly the claims, with multiple version changes 
leading up to the moment, late in the day on the last possible day, that 
I click "submit" and e-file it at the patent office.

The inventor declaration of course is tied to the notion that the signer 
has reviewed the patent application that is going to be filed, and 
agrees that he or she is an inventor thereof.  But in my case, given 
that the exact wording of the application kept wriggling around until 
the very end, there is no way the inventor could be expected to sign 
such a thing until after the wriggling had ceased.  Which means, no way 
could the inventor even sign the declaration until chronologically after 
the filing of the application had taken place.

Yet another thing that happens to me is, the instructions come in from 
foreign instructing counsel to please get something filed at the USPTO.  
So I prepare inventor declarations and send them to instructing 
counsel.  The signed declarations do not arrive until some days later, 
long after the US patent application got filed. Which means, no way 
could I managed to file the declaration with the application.

On 1/18/2024 8:49 AM, Randall Svihla via Patentcenter wrote:
>
> We always file the declaration with the application.
>
> *From:*Patentcenter <patentcenter-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> *On 
> Behalf Of *Roger Browdy via Patentcenter
> *Sent:* Thursday, January 18, 2024 10:34 AM
> *To:* For bug reports, feature requests, and tips and tricks about 
> Patent Center. <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Cc:* Roger Browdy <RLBrowdy at browdyneimark.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [Patentcenter] Faxes to the PTO - some legacy things do 
> work
>
> I don’t think it is a joke.  I bet there was a huge volume of 
> applications filed Tuesday night to avoid the DOCX tax.  We had to 
> file one late at night and had a hell of a time trying to do so.  
> Couldn’t file the assignment/dec forms with EPAS because of the 
> problems and couldn’t get back into PC to file the declaration 
> directly, so have to pay the surcharge for late filing of declaration 
> because of the PTO problems.  In a fair world, we would be able to get 
> that refunded.
>
> Roger
>
> *From:*Patentcenter <patentcenter-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> *On 
> Behalf Of *Patent Lawyer via Patentcenter
> *Sent:* Thursday, January 18, 2024 10:25 AM
> *To:* For bug reports, feature requests, and tips and tricks about 
> Patent Center. <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Cc:* Patent Lawyer <patentlawyer995 at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* [Patentcenter] Faxes to the PTO - some legacy things do work
>
> There was recent discussion about faxes to the PTO and return faxes 
> from the PTO.
>
> Because of yesterday’s shit show with Patent Center and because of 
> other deficiencies in Patent Center, I had to fax four separate 
> submissions to the PTO last night.
>
> I did receive acknowledgment faxes back from the PTO for each 
> submission.   So, that legacy functionality is still there, and it 
> still worked for me.  (I hope the PTO lurkers on this list don’t go 
> and turn it off!)
>
> I use a service called eFax.  It is not free.
>
> PS. I am still laughing at Sandra E’s joke about DDOS being just 
> normal filers filing in a volume the system can’t handle.
>
>
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