Let us choose, per-client, whether to use "ClientRef" or "AttorneyRef" in fields that are currently populated with "AttorneyRef"
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Some clients want us to use their own internal references on all documents, such as RCEs, ADSs, transmittal letters, etc. Currently there is no option available for Appcoll to generate USPTO forms using ClientRef instead of AttorneyRef.
This also causes the "AttorneyRef" to get flagged every time there is a Patent Center update:
Being able to specify whether ClientRef or AttorneyRef gets used in automatically generated forms would save a lot of time and manual effort.
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@SadiqA2304 Good idea--to add onto this, it would be nice to be able to, on a per-client basis, specify the field(s) to use for "Attorney Docket Number" in USPTO forms.
For example, as you originally suggested, some clients might want their own docket number used.
However, our firm often uses both, e.g., "{Matter.AttorneyRef}/{Matter.ClientRef}"
It would be nice to be able to specify a client-specific field string to use when inserting Attorney Docket Number into USPTO forms. Ideally, it would not be limited to just the AttorneyRef and ClientRef fields, and would allow additional plaintext characters to be included (like "/") as separators.
Ideally, there would be two such fields available for each client--the primary one and a backup one that is used if the primary one would result in a text string that exceeds 25 characters in length (the longest docket number permitted by the USPTO). We've had instances where including both our own and our client's docket numbers have exceeded 25 characters, so having a shorter backup version would be useful.
If no client-specific field codes are provided, then it would simply default to AttorneyRef.
USPTO Differences would be changed to check to see if the USPTO Attorney Docket Number matches the text that would be generated from the client-specific field code(s) that are specified; if not, then flag it as needing review.
