[Patentpractice] Seems nobody told Publications Branch that EFS-Web is gone!

[Carl Oppedahl]

On 3/19/2025 8:44 AM, Patent Lawyer via Patentpractice wrote:
> Got this notice last month to file corrected application papers (after 
> allowance).  This notice was about replacement drawings I had filed in 
> December.
>
> As far as I know, there is no more EFS-Web and there is no legal 
> framework for EFS-Web and there is no replacement legal framework for 
> PatentCenter.    The Publications Branch does not seem to know that.
>
> Also, the drawings in the file wrapper looked just fine to me.

Yes, there are quite a few places in 2025 in various USPTO documents and 
forms and web pages where EFS-Web and PAIR are referred to.

The particular notice you received from the Publication Branch is 
defective for the reasons you identified.  But there is a deeper 
problem.  The deeper problem is that the Publication Branch is 
dis-serving applicants by playing dumb and pretending they cannot figure 
out what to do with a PDF file if it contains "layers".

I have gone around and around with people in the Publication Branch 
about this playing dumb about "layers".  Of course this was back in the 
old days when it was actually possible to speak with a human being in 
the Publication Branch.  Nowadays, as we know, the Publication Branch 
has an unlisted telephone number.  Not only that, if you look in the 
USPTO's online Employee Directory to try to find a telephone number for 
the particular person who signed the Notice, you will find a line of 
spaces where the telephone number is supposed to appear.  So you are 
stuck talking with the (mis-named) "Application Assistance Unit".

But anyway, yes, layers.  Now I will mention that absolutely everyone 
who ever views or prints or otherwise makes use of a PDF file with 
"layers" can effortlessly make use of the PDF file.  So for example:

  * A person who prints a PDF file on a printer can do so without any
    difficulty at all, even if (1) it has "layers" in it and (2) the
    person has never heard of "layers" in a PDF file and had no idea
    that the PDF file had "layers" in it.
  * If ten different people receive such a "layered" PDF file, each
    running any of ten different computer operating systems and each
    running any of ten different PDF applications, and each having any
    one of ten different printers, each print it out, it will look
    absolutely the same on the printer.  (Note that the same cannot be
    said of a Microsoft Word DOCX file.)  Note that this
    identical-on-the-printer result will obtain even if none of the ten
    people ever heard of such a thing as "layers" in a PDF file.
  * If somebody sends you a PDF file (with "layers" in it), you can view
    the PDF file on your computer screen with no difficulty.  This works
    regardless of what kind of computer display you have, or what
    operating system you are using.  And it works even if you have never
    heard of such a thing as "layers" in a PDF file.

In the old days of EFS-Web, if you were to upload a "layered" PDF file 
to EFS-Web, then you would receive a warning (not an error message) 
saying that your file contains layers, and then it would merely suggest 
that you might want to flatten the file.  But EFS-Web would cooperate 
with you if you were to proceed with the submission.  EFS-Web would 
flatten the PDF file and the problem would go away.

What should happen with Patent Center (and the Publication Branch) and 
with a PDF file that happens to contain "layers" is that Patent Center 
should not play dumb and pretend that it cannot figure out how to do the 
same thing every printer does, which is to flatten the PDF file as 
needed.  Same thing for the Publication Branch.


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