PTO Outreach Sessions with Patent Applicants regarding eFiling and Proposed Future Needs

Text2PTO:
Modernizing Patent Application Filing

A Proposal for Submitting Text Applications to the USPTO

 

The Big Picture

• •The USPTO is building a new, modern patent examination software system. 

• •One part of this is modernizing how patent applications are filed. 

• •Applicants will receive many benefits from this with minimal changes in their existing work practices. 

 

Main Goal

Provide a safe, easy way for applicants to file the text version of their patent applications online.

 

Benefits

 

 

Benefits

• •Increased accuracy in filings 

• •Automated formalities checks 

• •Additional useful automated information 

• • –Claims trees 

  • –Patent family information 

• •Will enable better tools for patent examiners 

• •Will provide large cost savings for USPTO  

 

 

Focus:
Ease of Use for Applicants

• •Eliminates the need to: 

• • –Scan or pdf the file 

  • –Upload four different files  

  • –Figure out the number of pages for each file 

• •Amendments can be made on a copy of the original. 

  • –Cover sheet can be conveniently added for you. 

  • –Amendments can be authored using Track Changes 

• •No software to download or install 

 

Main Idea

Author your application in Word, and then upload it t.

 

Author your application in Word,
and then upload it to USPTO.

 

Applicants’ Concerns

• •What if we left track changes on? 

• •What if we left private information in? 

• •How can we be sure the contents of the application have not changed? 

 

We Have Solutions for
Applicants’ Concerns

• •What if we left track changes on? 

• • –USPTO is providing a validation tool that will alert you about this. 

• •What if we left private information in? 

• • –The validation tool will tell you this as well. 

• •How can we be sure the contents of the application have not changed?         

  • –USPTO is providing a code that allows you to easily and quickly verify that we have a verbatim copy of the text that you submitted. 

 

Validator Tool, Part 1

Check for Track Changes and Private Information

 

Make sure you did not include
any private information.

 

What Video Should Show

• •2 minutes max (all timing info below is maximum) 

• •No need for audio; we’ll speak over it. 

• • –Scroll through two different applications [45  sec] 

• • • •Show the same application but with two radically different looks (fonts, layout, etc) 

    • •In one of the files, show there are some track changes visible but only if you switch the View (from final to final showing markup, for example) 

  • –First check: 

    • •Upload the document with markup into the tool [5 sec] 

    • •Show the warning message and the “how to” screen. [30 sec] 

  • –Show the user doing the repair, maybe doing  “accept all changes” 

  • –Show the user re-running the tool on the file and getting an “ok” message. 

<number>

 

Validator Tool, Part 2

Check for Disallowed Markup (such as embedded fonts, colored text).

Optionally Fix It.

 

Check for and change any
disallowed formatting.

 

What Video Should Show

• •Two examples 

• •1st example: Text with color highlighting behind it. [30 sec] 

• • • •Step through the tool detecting it and then step through the user correcting each one by one 

• •2nd example: disallowed font [30 sec] 

• • –Show the “before” look 

  • –Show the user selecting an offered alternative and applying the change to all instances. 

• •Show the document now getting an “ok” 

• •Show the tool keeping track of and saving the latest version of the corrected file. 

  • –(Should they rename the file?  Does the tool have access to a directory of versions?) 

<number>

 

Validator Tool, Part 3

Make sure the section headings are each on their own line.

 

Make sure sections headings
are recognized.

 

What Video Should Show

• •Show two examples: 

• 1. 1.Wrong words to identify the specification [30 sec] 

• 1. • •Just have system say it can’t identify the spec and then show the allowed wordings for this header. 

     • •Show the user editing the document and re-running the tool and getting an “ok” message  

  2. 2.Section heading not on its own line [30 sec] 

• 1. • •Show system guessing the right location but warning user they have to put in a blank line. 

     • •Show user doing this and then getting an “ok” message. 

<number>

 

Ensuring the Document Remains Unchanged

Text2PTO supplies an identifier is created based on the text itself.

 

Ensuring the Document
Remains Unchanged

• •A standard way to do this is to create a unique identifier that is based on the actual text of the file. 

• • –This is called a “hash code”. 

• •The validator tool will produce this unique ID for you. 

• •If your document changes even by one space, the unique ID cannot be recomputed from the file. 

  • –This ID lets you prove to yourself and others that the file has not changed (or has changed if that is the case). 

 

Create a unique ID for this
version of the document.

 

What Video Should Show

• •30 sec for this sequence  

• •Show user getting an “ok” message for the entire document 

• •Show message offering to create a hash ID from the document text. 

• •Show user accepting this. 

• •Show the resulting document including th hash tag. 

<number>

 

How Long Does This Take?

• •Only a couple of minutes if your document is properly formatted. 

• •If it isn’t, then we predict from 5 to 15 minutes depending on the number of changes needed. 

 

Make sure sections headings
are recognized.

 

Optional:
Formalities CheckS

Check abstract length, show claims tree and any errors in claim numbering, see patent family information.

 

<number>

Results of Formalities Checks

 

<number>

 

<number>

 

<number>

 

<number>

 

Amendments

Modify a copy of your original document

Optional automated official markup.

 

Amendments

• •Start with your submitted Word file 

• • –If you lost it, get a copy from the USPTO. 

• •Edit it with track changes on. 

  • –Delete and add material to the claims and specification. 

• •Run it through the Amendment Validator. 

  • –(Optional) It will automatically reformat the edits you did into the USPTO required format. 

  • –(Optional) It will generate a cover page and description of the changes. 

 

Edit copy of original file
to create amendments.

 

What Video Should Show

• •Making the edits on claims for amendments [90 sec] 

• • –Show the user making a copy of the original document. 

  • –Show user deleting one claim, editing one claim, and adding one claim using track changes. 

  • –Show user uploading the document to the amendment validator. 

  • –Show the claims transformed into PTO format. 

  • –If possible, show the before and after side by side. 

<number>

 

What Video Should Show

• •Making the edits on the spec for amendments [60 sec] 

• • –Show the user adding and deleting text from the spec. 

  • –Show user uploading the document to the amendment validator. 

  • –Show the spec transformed into PTO format. 

  • –If possible, show the before and after side by side. 

<number>

 

What Video Should Show

• •Making the cover sheet for the amendments [90 sec] 

• • –Show the generated cover sheet for the changes made in the previous two segments. 

<number>

 

Added Value:
Paragraph Numbering

Automatically added paragraph numbers; keeps track of version numbers

 

Paragraph Numbering

• •The validator tool can automatically number the paragraphs. 

• •Additionally, these numbers can be augmented with the version number of the document. 

• • –Application version 1 

  • –Amendment version 3 

• •This allows for easier communication between the applicant and the examiner about changed material. 

 

What Video Should Show

• •[30 sec] 

• •Show text of original application with its paragraph numbers 

• •Then show editing of that document to create amendments. 

• •The numbering should automatically work if they start with the version that was uploaded to the PTO. 

<number>

 

Benefits:
Filing Applications as Text

• •Better for applicants: 

• • –No scanning 

  • –Re-use the text for amendments 

  • –Some formalities checks 

• •Better for examination: 

  • –Cost savings 

  • –Higher accuracy 

  • –Enables fantastic new tools for patent examiners. 

 

We Welcome Your Feedback!

What do you think?

 

Technical Details

 

Some Technical Details

• •The new patent examination tools make use of XML to represent documents in the system. 

• •Modern versions of word processing tools like Word store documents in OpenXML, an open format. 

• •USPTO can transform OpenXML documents into the format needed by the new tools. 

 

More Technical Details

• •Word allows certain kinds of markup that the USPTO does not want to see in the XML. 

• •The Validator Tool checks for this kind of markup and warns you. 

• • –You can remove the markup yourself, 

  • –Or let the Validator Tool remove it for you. 

 

A Fragment of OpenXML

<number>

 

Some Transformation Code

<number>

 

More Technical Details:
Hash Codes as IDs

• •It is standard practice to create a document “signature” from a hash function. 

• •[Details about which hash function we will be using should go here.] 

 

File Type	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation
File Modified	0000-00-00
File Created	0000-00-00

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