[Patentpractice] Assignment Center - can you save progress part way through? No

[Richard Schafer]

I’m pretty sure that the PTO rules require every account to be for a single person only and disallow this kind of role-based multi-person account.

Best regards,
Richard A. Schafer | Schafer IP Law
P.O. Box 230081 | Houston, TX 77223
M: 832.283.6564 | richard at schafer-ip.com<mailto:richard at schafer-ip.com>

From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of James Katz via Patentpractice
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 5:21 AM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: James Katz <jkatz at lsk-iplaw.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] Assignment Center - can you save progress part way through? No

So we have now found that Assignment Center appears to “silently” automatically save in-process submissions.  We have tested abandoning a submission at various screens, including at the final submission screen and have found that our progress was saved and we could return later to complete the submission.

So in order to implement a second pair of eyes on submissions, our assistants will stop once they reach the submit screen, return to the home screen, go back in to the saved submission and print the completed cover sheet to PDF, they will then email that PDF to the attorney along with a copy of the assignment document that was uploaded.  The attorney will review and respond with approval after which the assistant will go back in and submit.  At least one downside to this approach is that the attorney will be unable to review the actual uploaded assignment document.  So if the wrong document was uploaded, but the right document was attached to the email for review, the attorney will not know.

Another solution we considered but discarded was to create a dedicated MyUSPTO account for assignment submissions to which everyone has access. This would allow one to go in and review a saved submission.  However, not only would this be cumbersome to have to log out of one’s personal MyUSPTO account and into another (and maintain two 2FA entries, etc.), it was also unclear if multiple users could be logged in to the same account at once. I also did not check if this would violate some PTO TOS somewhere.

Another thing we have found is that when entering multiple email addresses to receive submission confirmations, etc., each recipient will receive an email addressed only to them. So from that email you cannot tell who the other recipients are.  Furthermore, the email itself, e.g., the subject line and body, do not identify the application number or client/matter.  Only the id number assigned to the submission by Assignment Center is identified.  You have to open up the attached cover sheet document to see the application number.

Jim

James L. Katz
patent attorney
312.854.8372 ▪ direct
312.291.0864 ▪ fax
jkatz at lsk-iplaw.com<mailto:jkatz at lsk-iplaw.com>

LEMPIA SUMMERFIELD KATZ LLC
20 south clark street, suite 600 ▪ chicago, illinois 60603  ▪ www.lsk-iplaw.com<http://www.lsk-iplaw.com/>

Please note:   This message is intended for the individual or entity named above and may constitute a privileged and confidential communication.  If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy, use, or disclose this message.  Please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete the message from your system.  Thank you.


From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com>> on behalf of Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>>
Date: Monday, February 5, 2024 at 10:57 PM
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: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com<mailto:carl at oppedahl.com>>
Subject: [Patentpractice] Assignment Center - can you save progress part way through? No

Nope, it turns out to be impossible to save the submission package part way through.  See https://blog.oppedahl.com/some-of-the-defects-in-the-new-assignment-center/ .
On 1/29/2024 4:15 PM, Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice wrote:

Yes, it looks like that.

It looks like if the exact same person wants to save progress and come back, they maybe can do that.  There is one extremely blurry slide toward the beginning of the slide deck that gives the impression that you can do that.  But it looks like it is impossible to pass a partially completed filing project over to a colleague for a "second pair of eyes".  Or to pass it to a colleague for e-signature.
On 1/29/2024 4:05 PM, James Katz via Patentpractice wrote:
It also seems that they removed any ability to “save progress” or otherwise save a submission for review before it is submitted.

So there goes our workflow where our assistants upload an assignment and save it before submission, then forward the EPAS link to the attorney for review before the assistant then submits.

Jim

James L. Katz
patent attorney
312.854.8372 ▪ direct
312.291.0864 ▪ fax
jkatz at lsk-iplaw.com<mailto:jkatz at lsk-iplaw.com>

LEMPIA SUMMERFIELD KATZ LLC
20 south clark street, suite 600 ▪ chicago, illinois 60603  ▪ www.lsk-iplaw.com<http://www.lsk-iplaw.com/>

Please note:   This message is intended for the individual or entity named above and may constitute a privileged and confidential communication.  If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy, use, or disclose this message.  Please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete the message from your system.  Thank you.


From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> on behalf of Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Date: Monday, January 29, 2024 at 4:57 PM
To: patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com> <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com><mailto:carl at oppedahl.com>
Subject: [Patentpractice] some initial reactions to the USPTO's training slides for son-of-EPAS

Cumbersome login now required.  It used to be that anybody could submit an assignment for recordation.  Now you have to do a cumbersome login with two-factor authentication.  I suspect this means the person doing the recordation session will have previously been forced to do a Real ID or other invasive prove-who-you-are procedure.

Stupid terminology.  The designer of son-of-EPAS calls the recordation session "filing an application".  This is nuts.

No functional enhancements for the paying customer.  After all this big talk about how wonderful this son-of-EPAS system is going to be, I clicked around a bit to try to see what functional enhancements it is going to provide.  For example I figured the least they would do is make it so that you can check the status of a recordation submission.  Nope.  No enhancements of any kind so far as I can see.

Blocks you from including an application number that they can't find in their system.  It looks like if your patent application is not in Patentcenter, you will be blocked from including it in your recordation submission.  I suspect this means it will be impossible to record against a PCT application filed in an Office that is not the RO/US.




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