[Patentpractice] Snail mail from the USPTO

[Goldberg, Judi]

I don’t wait for the US receiving office to send us notifications (they take weeks to generate the initial batch of notifications).  I rely on the ePCT notification emails and on the ePCT dashboard, and then I download documents directly from ePCT.  Saves a ton of time and is more reliable than the USPTO.

There are also some ISAs who send the ISR and written opinions via snail mail.  Again, they are available in ePCT before the mail even reaches our offices.

Best,
Judi

From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Roger Browdy via Patentpractice
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2024 3:53 PM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Roger Browdy <RLBrowdy at browdyneimark.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] Snail mail from the USPTO


[External Email]
I very recently was informed the following in a petition decision from the PCT Legal Office:

First, e-Office Action is not available for international applications in the international phase. As stated on the e-Office Action web page at e-Office Action FAQ #6 "International applications that have not entered the national stage in the United States ... are not included in the program."  Additionally, FAQ #7 states "Since several areas of the Office have independent mailing processes, participants will continue to receive paper mailings for communications prepared by the non-participating business units, including (but not limited to): The Patent Cooperation Treaty Operations Division, International Branch [.]" Scanning of international phase documents can lag mailing by weeks, but response times are set from mailing. Response periods in the international phase are regularly one and two months without extensions of time available.

Roger

From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com>> On Behalf Of Randall Svihla via Patentpractice
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2024 11:41 AM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>>
Cc: Randall Svihla <rsvihla at nsiplaw.com<mailto:rsvihla at nsiplaw.com>>
Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] Snail mail from the USPTO

Hi, Krista

The U.S. Receiving Office only sends things by snail mail, and the same office processes the U.S. National Stage filings, so it appears that some documents such as filing receipts and 371 acceptance letters for U.S. National Stage applications are sometimes sent both by snail mail and e-Office Action, or maybe by snail mail only.  I'm not sure what determines how things are sent.'

Best regards,

Randall S. Svihla
NSIP Law
Washington, D.C.


From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com>> On Behalf Of Krista Jacobsen via Patentpractice
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2024 9:51 AM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>>
Cc: Krista Jacobsen <krista at jacobseniplaw.com<mailto:krista at jacobseniplaw.com>>
Subject: [Patentpractice] Snail mail from the USPTO

Yesterday when I checked my physical mailbox, I found I had received two envelopes from the USPTO. I opened them to find that they contained hardcopies of the filing receipts and 371 acceptance letters for two U.S. national-phase entries I filed in October 2023.

"Huh," I thought. "This must mean there was yet another Patent Center issue, and these documents are not yet available electronically."

But no. Electronic copies have been available in the file wrapper since March 25. I had downloaded and reviewed them already.

??

Has anyone else received untimely hardcopies of things from the USPTO for seemingly no reason?

------------------------------------------
Krista S. Jacobsen
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Jacobsen IP Law
krista at jacobseniplaw.com<mailto:krista at jacobseniplaw.com>
T:  408.455.5539
www.jacobseniplaw.com<http://www.jacobseniplaw.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://oppedahl-lists.com/pipermail/patentpractice_oppedahl-lists.com/attachments/20240410/024c3082/attachment.html>