[Patentpractice] PDF forms issue

[Krista Jacobsen]

Mike, I feel the same way about Adobe, and although I hate many aspects of
Word, I have to agree with you that it is MILES ahead of Acrobat in terms
of the user experience. Adobe seems to be compelled to make changes to the
software just for the sake of making changes.

"Oh, you expect the toolbar to be on the right as it has been for the past
bazillion years? Well, we've moved it to the left."
"You were used to having the menu items in certain places, per the
hierarchy we used for years? Yeah, we changed that, too."

Yesterday I had the following actual exchange with an Adobe customer
"service" agent:

Me: "Please try to OCR this file." [Attaches file in chat]
Salik: "Krista, OCR is working perfectly fine on this file."
Me: "It is not."
Salik: [Tells me to do exactly what I tried to do multiple times already,
and throws in a gratuitous explanation of what OCR is and is not]
Me: "That is what I have been doing! IT DOES NOT WORK.
I understand OCR
It worked fine for years"
Salik: "Krista if the feature was broken would it work on my end?"

I mean, *chef's kiss*. Could anything more perfectly summarize Adobe and
its worldview?

Best regards,
Krista

------------------------------------------
Krista S. Jacobsen
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Jacobsen IP Law
krista at jacobseniplaw.com
T:  408.455.5539
www.jacobseniplaw.com


On Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 8:29 AM Michael Dryja via Patentpractice <
patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:

> I subscribe to Adobe to stay on the latest version of Pro.  I wouldn’t
> mind the subscription cost as much if the software was actually good (by
> comparison, I perhaps am in the minority that I like Microsoft Word).
>
> But Acrobat is awful.  The user interface is cryptic, and does not follow
> UI design principles in my estimation.
>
> The one thing that Acrobat has going for it is that I haven’t found
> another PDF editing program that permits you to import format data via XML
> in order to generate ADSs and IDSs.  My docketing software generates the
> XML files, and then via the magic of AppleScript opens up the blank ADS or
> IDS form in Adobe and imports the XML to generate the form.
>
>  - Mike.
>
> On Apr 19, 2024, at 8:17 AM, Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice <
> patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:
>
> Same here.  See screen shot below.  Acrobat Pro 2017 is installed on my
> notebook computer.   I paid a one-time fee a long time ago for this
> software for a paid-up license.  Adobe nowadays does not, for any amount of
> money, nowadays offer a way to get a new install of Acrobat that is (a)
> installed on your computer rather than in a cloud, and (b) can be paid for
> once and then you have a paid-up license.
>
> I imagine that what is going on nowadays is that the USPTO people do not
> give a moment's thought to the consequences for users when they migrate to
> the newest version of Acrobat.  Probably what happens is that the USPTO
> people then update some fillable official USPTO PDF form (for example the
> inventor declaration) using the newest version of Acrobat.  And Adobe has
> hidden some code in the newest version of Acrobat that make it so that when
> the fillable official USPTO PDF form gets updated, this newest version of
> Acrobat leaves tripwires inside the fillable official USPTO PDF form.  And
> then when a USPTO customer tries to make use of a version of Acrobat that
> is not the newest *paid-for *version, it pukes or crashes or freezes.
>
> Twenty years ago, when the USPTO launched EFS-Web, the USPTO's promise to
> users was that any and all functions of the fillable official USPTO PDF
> forms could be carried out by using the free version of Acrobat.
>
> I am pretty sure the USPTO has by now betrayed that promise.  I am pretty
> sure that the USPTO's revisions to its fillable official USPTO PDF forms
> have led to a situation where the only way to make use of the forms is by
> means of *paid-for* Acrobat, and not only that, the only way to make use
> of the forms is by means of *recurring-cost* Acrobat.
> On 4/19/2024 8:42 AM, Suzannah K. Sundby via Patentpractice wrote:
>
> Me thinks/suspects that Adobe might be intentionally causing “issues” so
> that users decide to update their software… which I think they offer
> *subscription* only now.
>
> Hence, I’m trying to stick with my Adobe Acrobat Pro 2017 desktop software
> for as long as possible.
>
> <1K9Bfw63mS7qhqor.png> --
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