[Patentcenter] patent crapper offline?

Thu Oct 31 11:50:11 UTC 2024

What seems to be working for me (Edge browser) is to leave the MyUSPTO page
open, then close the Patent Center page when done with whatever task and
then reopen it from MyUSPTO for the next task. The system appears to time
out on PC but not MyUSPTO?

Of course, it's absurd that "customers" have to jump through a litany of
work-arounds to try to use the website as intended to get their work done,
not helped at all by error messages that give no indication of what the
actual problem is. One can only imagine how short an actual online business
using such a website would last.

-Jeff

Jeffrey E. Semprebon
Registered Patent Agent (mechanical) looking for remote work
jesemprebon at gmail.com
72 Myrtle Street
Claremont, New Hampshire 03743

On Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 7:40 AM Gerry Peters via Patentcenter <
patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:

> Hi Dan,
>
> See posts from last few days with subject lines like "[Patentcenter]
> 401 Forbidden," "[Patentcenter] PatentCenter choking for anyone else?,"
> and "[Patentcenter] Patent Center Access" for similar reports and
> possible workarounds from others.
>
> To add my own report and personal superstitions for warding off
> PatentCenter gremlins, I used Chrome today to log into PatentCenter
> and was able to successfully upload an OA Response, but I had a 401
> error when I started (probably was in cache from last time I used
> PatentCenter), and I had a 401 error after logging out.
>
> To get around the first 401 error (the one I'm thinking was in my
> browser's cache), instead of entering https://patentcenter.uspto.gov/
> as I usually do, I tried https://patentcenter.uspto.gov
> (dropped forward slash at end of URL), which got me in.
>
> My tentative conclusion is if you mix it up, you can confuse
> PatentCenter into letting you log in (like New Yorkers who signal the
> wrong way to head-fake other drivers).
>
> But seriously, this observation suggests to me that something is going
> on with the cache or with DNS (e.g., it may be that PatentCenter's
> way of avoiding being DDOSed is to temporarily blacklist anyone and
> everyone who logs off (or is force-logged-off by) PatentCenter.
>
> If my theory (okay, superstition) is correct, then another way in
> which you might "mix it up" -- besides coming in through the "back
> door" of AssignmentCenter or FinancialManager as mentioned by others --
> would be to try instead coming in through the "side door" by prefixing
> the URL with http instead of https (I'm assuming that you'll get a
> redirect from http to https; the only purpose here is to confuse
> PatentCenter into letting you log in).
>
> A second observation I made today is that I also got the 401 error
> again when I signed out at the end of my session (as I had
> during the previous session from a couple of day ago as well), but this
> time I don't think it was just a simple cache issue, because multiple
> attempts to get back into the login page (I am in the habit of doing
> this for myself -- so it is there for me next time -- because
> PatentCenter doesn't have the courtesy to return my browser tab to the
> login page by itself) similarly resulted in the 401 error, which is
> what led me to my latest theory, which is that PatentCenter is
> automatically temporarily blacklisting IP addresses a bit too lightly.
>
> Not sure what the blacklist reset time is (assuming that is what is
> going on), but anyone having trouble might try taking a break for
> a few minutes (*) before trying again ... or try using Tor or a VPN to
> change your IP address if in a hurry.
>
> (*)  Ah, but if true, how long is the blacklist reset period? ...And
> note that if this is what is going on, repeated attempts before
> expiration of the blacklist timeout will presumably only cause the ban
> to be reimposed (and perhaps increased in length in response to
> the number of failed login attempts)...
>
> ---Gerry
>
> Gerry Peters
> U.S. Patent Agent & Japanese Translator
>
> JTT K.K. (OSAKA & TOKYO JAPAN)
> JTT PATENT SERVICES, LLC (NH USA)
> JTT TRANSLATION SERVICES, LLC (NH USA)
> --------------------------------------------------
> TEL +1 206 203 5010     EMAIL   info at jttpatent.com
> FAX +1 206 203 5020     WEB     www.jttpatent.com
>
>
> >> BEGIN MSG ID
> >> d4b84bd9-1206-48d7-b858-f2fd623c9e8a at smtp-relay.sendinblue.com <<
>
> Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:33:30 +0200
> From: Dan Feigelson via Patentcenter <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
> To: "users of Patentcenter" <patentcenter at oppedahl-lists.com>
> Cc: Dan Feigelson <djf at iliplaw.com>
> Subject: [Patentcenter] patent crapper offline?
>
> I'm trying to get into p.c., but when I click on the link to p.c. under
> "quicklinks", I get nothing, with this in the address part of the
> browser: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov/401
>
> Just me?
>
> Of course, the systems status page is all Han Solo - "everything ok,
> here, no outages, how are you?"
>
>
> >> END MSG ID
> >> d4b84bd9-1206-48d7-b858-f2fd623c9e8a at smtp-relay.sendinblue.com <<
>
> --
> Patentcenter mailing list
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>
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