The following article shows all communications AppColl has sent out to users regarding the Patent Center transition on November 06, 2023.

11-08-23

Effective November 06, 2023, AppColl successfully transitioned away from Private Pair and now exclusively uses Patent Center to retrieve data for your U.S. and PCT patents and applications. While we continue to make this transition as seamless as possible, there are some changes in behavior:

• The performance of retrieving XML files and documents from Patent Center is significantly slower than Private Pair. Your documents and matter updates may take longer to complete each morning. 
• Some customers may have experienced an increase in “Review USPTO Communication” tasks appearing on their docket over the past few days, most of which are redundant. These additional tasks are a direct result of the different information in the Patent Center XML files. The redundant tasks should simply be marked as “Not Needed”. If they are deleted, they will be regenerated the next time an XML is loaded for the matter. We regret the inconvenience this may cause.
• Another important difference with Patent Center XML files is that they no longer contain the historical information used to create the “USPTO:” tasks. The former “USPTO”: tasks showed the transaction history for a patent (e.g., when an Office Action was mailed, when a Notice of Allowance was mailed, etc.). With Patent Center removing this information from XML files, “USPTO:” tasks will no longer be generated.

11-09-23

With the transition to Patent Center, we are finding that some XML files don’t include the issue date and patent number on the day the Notice of Issuance is mailed. This may result in tasks triggered from the issue date not being generated. We do not currently know how long it takes for the USPTO to include the issue date in the XML file after the Notice of Issuance mailing.

For PM Plus accounts, when AppColl receives an e-Office action for a Notice of Issuance, the XML will be downloaded the same day. If the XML does not contain the issue date at that time, the IssueDate field in the matter in AppColl will not be populated and consequently tasks using the date will not be triggered. Note that AppColl will not automatically download the XML file again until another e-Office action is received for the matter. 

Until the PTO fixes this issue, we recommend manually entering the issue date and patent number any time you receive a Notice of Issuance for your U.S. patents. Please note that the issue date is required for AppColl to generate maintenance fees tasks.