[Patentpractice] RO/US snail mail (was Snail mail from the USPTO)

[Carl Oppedahl]

On 4/10/2024 2:53 PM, Roger Browdy via Patentpractice wrote:
>
> 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.
>
Thank you Roger for sharing this.

I have two reactions to what you shared.  First, what the USPTO wrote 
seems very close to content-free.  It seems to be saying something along 
the lines of:

    You asked why it is that the RO/US only sends paper snail mail
    instead of doing it electronically like the rest of the Patent
    Office.  The answer is, because I said so.

In the EPO, you might ask why it is that ISA/EP does not send out 
ISR/WOs by ordinary email like many other ISAs do.  If you were to ask, 
the EPO person would cite some actual law or rule or something that says 
in a very direct way that EPO is forbidden from using ordinary email for 
stuff like ISR/WOs.  I don't have the cite handy, but it is a real 
thing.  There is actually a reason for it.

I am unaware of any law or rule or anything that somehow forbids the 
RO/US from doing electronic communications or that somehow ties the 
hands of the RO/US to only use paper mail.  So far as I am aware, the 
situation is that if they were to go to the trouble to make it so, they 
could make it so.

Second, this is all a reminder how good it can be if the practitioner 
has the self-control not to use RO/US at all but instead to use RO/IB.  
Yes you have to pay attention to your FFL situation.  And you have to 
keep track of what time it is in Geneva.  But one of the many benefits 
of using RO/IB is that you will receive your communications pretty much 
instantly by email.

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