By Sydney Kokjohn --
Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office celebrated the one-year anniversary of its e-Office Action (e-OA) program. So far, the program has electronically notified patent applicants on more than 850,000 Office communications and reduced Patent Office paper usage by more than 9.2 million pages.
A pilot version of the program launched in December 2006 and later expanded to include additional USPTO offices (see "USPTO begins the 'e-Office Action' Pilot Program" and "e-Office Action Pilot Program Expansion"). In February of last year, the USPTO announced the pilot e-Office Action program would be made permanent in March. There was initially some confusion about whether the program would be mandatory, but the Patent Office clarified that it was optional and that mailed communications would be sent if you were not enrolled (see "Optional e-Office Action Program to Begin in March"). The permanent program actually started on July 21, 2010 (see "USPTO e-Office Action Program Launches").
Participation in the e-OA program is available to any registered patent attorney or agent or any pro se inventor, who is prosecuting an application associated with a customer number. Applicants can opt-in or opt-out at any time. This program allows applicants to receive notifications several days faster than when paper communications are mailed. Those who opt-in to the program receive daily email notifications (including on the weekends) that Office communications are available for download through private PAIR. The email notifications replace the postal mailing of Office communications for these applicants. Applicants can enroll in the e-OA program through private PAIR by selecting the option to "Receive Correspondence Notification via e-Mail" on the Customer Details for Customer Number screen. Other beneficial features of the program include:
• Notifications sent to up to three emails addresses; and
• Reminder postcards when a new e-Office Action has not been viewed within seven days and requires a reply.
Some of the top document codes for e-Office Actions include non-final rejections, notices of allowance, and filing receipts (a spreadsheet of top document codes can be found here). Participants in the e-OA program are invited to share their experiences by emailing [email protected]. Additional information about the e-OA program can be found here.
Comments