Test PDF documents upon upload to Prior Art module for acceptability by USPTO

[GeorgeJ4336]

I really like the Prior Art module in AppColl, because it stores prior art, cross-correlates between matters, and generates IDSs. I have a suggested enhancement.

This weekend, I ran into a problem trying to upload several references with an IDS I generated from the Prior Art module. Patent Center would not accept two of the documents, for lack of embedded fonts. I was able to recover, but it took a while. If I had been working against a midnight deadline, I might not have made it. (I eventually learned to fix the problem using the Preview application on my Mac. The print dialog box offers a "Save as PDF..." option, which flattens the file, embeds fonts, or performs some other magic, but that is another story.)

I suggest adding a test of PDF documents uploaded into the Prior Art module to see if all the fonts are embedded, and maybe perform other tests that Patent Center performs, and warn the user if the document is unlikely to be acceptable to Patent Center. Don't reject the file, just warn the user that he/she will probably not be able to upload the PDF to the USPTO, without first flattening the file or embedding the fonts or fixing something else.

I don't know exactly what tests the USPTO performs on uploaded PDF files or what tool they use to perform the tests, but that information should be available from the USPTO. Their "PDF Creation for EFS-Web" document outlines basic PDF requirements, so that should provide at least a framework.

The USPTO being what it is, just because a PDF document passes a test AppColl performs when ingesting the document does not guarantee the PTO won't later reject the document. But, being warned of possible problems ahead of time could save a practitioner from a last minute panic.

Thanks,
George

[GeorgeJ4336]

@jonah-soundhound-com I use Patent Center. I haven't used EFS-Web for months. The missing fonts issue I mentioned above relates to Patent Center. I did not try uploading the IDS via EFS-Web. I agree, it does not make sense to spend engineering effort to help with problems in a system that is planned for deprecation. However, Patent Center is not planned for deprecation.

[JonahP1621]

This post is deleted!

[SadiqA2304]

@GeorgeJ4336 You can already test documents by uploading them in Patent Center. Whenever I have questionable PDFs, I just create a new dummy application in Patent Center and upload them and see if there are errors. IMO this should be very far down on the list for Appcoll to implement, if ever, in view of the numerous suggestions that have been made in this forum that have yet to be implemented.

[support_appcoll]

Hi George,

Thank you for the suggestion. We will certainly pass this on to engineering for future consideration.

• AppColl Support