Best posts made by GeorgeJ4336

@jonah-soundhound-com
Agreed! I have a task to "Pay foreign associate," although it could be more generally "Pay vendor," such as draftsman. I'd like to be able to store the vendor's invoice number and invoice amount in the Task, then use those fields in generating e-mail messages. It would be even more useful if Tasks were augmented to be able to Create Form Letters (for example, as Matter Detail pages can do). Then, I could print the vendor's check from the Task, and print a payment cover letter from the Task, and send the vendor a payment advice via e-mail, all from the Task. Some of this would require expanding the number of fields that return values in Tasks. For example, currently {Matter.ForeignAssociate} returns a value, but {Matter.ForeignAssociate.Company} and {Matter.ForeignAssociate.Street} do not return values within a Task.

This situation is a reason to support multi-level fields, such as {Task.Matter.ForeignAssociate} or {Task.Matter.ForeignAssociate.Company} or {Task.Matter.ForeignAssociate.Street}.

Another useful user field would be check number, to record the check with which I paid the vendor. All these fields could, of course, be user-defined, as Jonah suggests. But, the number of fields that return values in Tasks needs to be expanded, and Tasks need to be able to Create Form Letters. (I will post these as separate suggestions.)

Creating really powerful templates requires an ability to embed calculations, "if-then" logic, and database queries in fields.

1. For example, when reporting paying an issue fee, it is nice to provide at least an estimated expiration date. If all maintenance fees are timely paid, the patent is scheduled to expire on {Matter.ExpiredDate(MMMM d, yyyy)} or {Matter.FilingDate(+20y MMMM d, yyyy)} + {Matter.PatentTermAdjustment(0)} days, assuming no terminal disclaimer is involved. It would be very nice to be able to perform that arithmetic automatically, along the lines of:

{Matter.ExpiredDate(+{Matter.PatentTermAdjustment}d MMMM d, yyyy)}

2. The only current logic capability I am aware of is to specify alternative text to be inserted when a field is empty:

{!No Client Ref Specified!Matter.ClientRef}

It would be great to expand this logic capability.

For example, the due date to file an Article 19 Amendment is the later of {Task.RespondBy(-1m MMMM d, yyyy)} or {Matter.PriorityDate(+16m MMMM d, yyyy)}. It would be better if a template could include something like:

The due date to file an Article 19 Amendment is {LaterOf {Task.RespondBy(-1m MMMM d, yyyy)}, {Matter.PriorityDate(+16m MMMM d, yyyy)} }.

Although the prior example refers to dates, numerical comparisons might be useful, too.

3. To report when the next European (3rd to nth) annuity payment will be due requires concatenating: (a) the application filing month, (b) the last day of that month, and (c) the current year (if the month has not yet occurred this year) or the next year (if the month has already occurred this year). But, I know of no way to do anything close to this with the present template document field syntax. I suggest adding support for syntax along the lines of:

{Matter.FilingDate(MMMM dlast)}, {if {Matter.FilingDate(MonthDayOf)} < {General.Now(MonthDayOf)} then {General.Now(yyyy)} else {General.Now(+1y yyyy)} }

or

{Matter.FilingDate(MMMM LastDayOf)}, ...

I realize this is asking for a significant addition to the capability of the syntax parser, essentially turning it into an interpreter. But, we would be able to write really useful templates.

Thanks,
George

I don't like to retype or copy/paste when I don't have to. Recording assignments requires LOTS of error-prone and mind numbing typing and/or copying and pasting. However, most of the information required by ePAS is already in a Matter Detail record. So, why not have AppColl generate an XML file that ePAS (USPTO Electronic Patent Assignment System) will ingest? Since AppColl now supports TXT files, and an XML file is just a TXT file with a different filename extension, it can be done.

The attached file (actually, a PDF of a TXT file, because the forum does not allow uploading TXT files) does almost everything that I need. Store the TXT file as a Form Letter in AppColl, then generate a document in the Matter Details page, and almost all of the information needed to record the assignments goes into the generated TXT file. Lightly edit the TXT file with a text editor (if you use a word processor, be careful to output a TXT file), and you can then upload the TXT file into ePAS. (ePAS accepts TXT and XML files.) See instructions in the comments section at the beginning of the attached document about what you have to edit in the TXT file. I have lobbied AppColl to add some capabilities, such as per-inventor assignment execution dates, but until these are implemented, you will have to enter the execution dates manually. You have to be fastidious, because ePAS is notoriously finicky, and in some places inconsistent. So, pay attention to the instructions.

The attached document is built to handle up to 20 assignors and one assignee, but you can extend that, if you want.

I provide this file FYI, without support or warranty.

ePAS Assignment Recordation Upload.pdf

Each contact has a "role," such as inventor, employee, client, or company. For contacts that have relationships to entities, for example, inventors, employees, or paralegals, who are associated with clients or foreign associates, it would be nice to have the option to specify the contact's preferred contact information (mailing address, phone number, etc.) is the same as for the corresponding entity, maybe via check boxes next to these fields. Otherwise, when an entity moves, I have to change the addresses of all the people associated with that entity. I realize I could use the address, etc. fields for people to store only their personal contact information, but that defeats automatic generation of reporting letters, such as those that must be sent via paper (ex. original Letters Patent). It would also make it easier to be consistent in the way correspondence gets addressed. For example, it would avoid sending one contact's correspondence to "The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc." and sending another contact's correspondence to "Draper Laboratory."
Thanks.
George

@MarkW5689 I can't remember where I found them, but here are some invoice fields:

Invoice Balance
Invoice BillTo
ex. {Invoice.BillTo.First} {Invoice.BillTo.Last} {Invoice.BillTo.Company} {Invoice.BillTo.EmailCC} {Invoice.BillTo.EmailNoCC}
These values are determined by the “Bill To” field in an invoice. This field accepts a Contact, so the subfields are determined from the Contact record.
Invoice Client
ex. {Invoice.Client.Name} {Invoice.Client.IntakeEmailAddress}
(See notes re BillTo.)
Invoice Comments
Invoice CutoffDate
Invoice Description
Invoice DueDate
Invoice Expenses
Invoice Fees
Invoice InvoiceAmount
Invoice InvoiceDate
Invoice InvoiceNos
Invoice LEDESFile
Invoice Locked
Invoice Modified
Invoice PaidOnDate
Invoice Payment
Invoice PaymentTerms
Invoice PDFFile
Invoice RemitTo
ex. {Invoice.RemitTo.Name} {Invoice.RemitTo.EmailNoCc
(See notes re BillTo.)
Invoice SendToQuickBooks
Invoice StartDate
Invoice Status
Invoice WriteOffs

I'd like to resurrect this thread.
As @RichardS3059 noted, there are several instances where we would like to include text from a first field (if that field is not blank), but include text from a second field (if the first field is blank), and some of us prefer "a programmatic way to accomplish the result over fields that have field-specific logic embedded into them, because they allow a more generalized result."
Examples of this situation include PTO filings (responses to Office Actions, etc.) and client correspondence that reference:

1. a client-specific USPTO customer number (if the client has one), or the firm's customer number (if the client doesn't have one) (Some of my clients want me to use their customer number, rather than mine.)
2. a client-specific USPTO deposit account number (if the client has one), or the firm's deposit account number (if the client doesn't have one)
3. actual filing date vs official filing date vs priority date.

Please consider adding syntax that enables run-time selection of alternative text, such as when a first field is blank.

@RichardS3059 posted a possible syntax:
{{Matter.ClientContact.Nickname},{Matter.ClientContact.FirstName}}
and he suggested a more generalized IF syntax be created, which is a great idea.

I suggested syntax along the lines of:
{!{Matter.Client.PrimaryContact.First}!Matter.Client.PrimaryContact.Nickname}

Thanks,
George

The Manage Invoices module generates a Balance (current amount due plus past due invoices). However, this does not seem to be a field I can access, which is unfortunate. It would be nice to be able to include this in a cover e-mail message when I send an invoice.
Would anyone else find such a field useful?

I like to address my reporting and instruction letters using nicknames, if the recipients have nicknames. The contacts module conveniently has a Nickname field, so my letter template could include something like:

Dear {Matter.Client.PrimaryContact.Nickname}:

However, many contacts do not have nicknames, so their Nickname fields are empty. It would be very nice if I could put something like:

{!{Matter.Client.PrimaryContact.First}!Matter.Client.PrimaryContact.Nickname}

in my letter template to use the Nickname field if it is not blank, but use the First field if the Nickname field is blank. I suspect this syntax would also be very handy in relation to other fields.

I realize I could go through all my contacts and, for those who don't have nicknames, copy their first names into their respective Nickname fields, but being a former software developer, I'm lazy.

Is there another way to accomplish my goal?

Thanks,
George

Some of my clients demand receipts to justify expenses greater than a predetermined dollar amount. When I incur an expense, such as paying a foreign associate or a USPTO fee, I create a billing item.

1. I wish I could attach documentation in support of the expense to the billing item for later reference.

I like the predefined templates in the billing items for USPTO fees. I've added templates for paying a foreign associate, paying for shipping documents, paying for patent drawings, etc. So, creating billing items is easy. Furthermore, billing items carry over into bills generated by AppCol, and these bills (with expenses) carry over into Quickbooks, which I use for accounting.

2. It would be nice if any attachments to billing items would automatically get attached to billing e-mail messages generated by AppCol.

However, as it turns out, I don't send bills to this client (the one that wants receipts) from the AppCol billing module, because this client wants me to upload its bills as LEDES files through Thomson Reuters Legal Tracker. AppCol generates the LEDES files without a problem, which is nice.

However, when I upload a LEDES file, I have to go back to the e-mail file and try to find the receipt(s). It would be better if I could have attached the receipt(s) to the billing item in the first place.

3. It would be great if the billing module made it easy to download any attachments to billing items, so I could then upload them to Legal Tracker.

Thanks,
George

@gregg_appcoll Perfect! Thanks.

I can now automatically address e-mail correspondence to examiners, such as to request interviews. In the "To" field, I put:

{Matter.Examiner} <{Matter.Examiner(FirstWord)}.{Matter.Examiner(LastWord ToTitleCase)}@USPTO.gov>

and in the salutation, I put:

Dear Examiner {Matter.Examiner(LastWord ToTitleCase)}:

-George

A matter details page has a very nice "Create Form Letters" button, which generates a DOCX, RTF, etc. document using a pre-defined template, which has access to {Matter...} fields populated from the matter of the opened matter details page. Please provide a similar capability from the invoice details page. One of my clients wants to receive a paper invoice via the US Postal Service. I can print a PDF invoice easily enough, but I need to generate a cover letter. For the cover letter, I would like access to invoice fields, such as {Invoice.BillTo.Address} and {Invoice.InvoiceAmount}.
The invoice detail page already has an "Email to Client" button. Generating an e-mail message with this facility can take advantage of the "Show Form Fields" panel. So, it would seem that generating a form letter should not be that difficult to implement, but that is easy for me to say.
Thanks,
George

@SadiqA2304 I believe you are referring to the Notifications email template editing UI. I believe @JasonP2345 is requesting an addition to the "Send Email" editing UI. In a matter detail page or a task detail page, there is an email icon (yellow envelope) in the upper-right corner. Clicking that icon brings up a dialog box ("Send Email"), which allows a user to "Select Template" (from a pull-down list), "Create Template," or "Edit Template," as follows:

It would be great if an email message generated from one of these templates could automatically inherit copies of documents that are attached to the task being displayed.

For example, I suggest adding a check box ("Attach any documents linked to task") to the "Send Email" dialog box, as mocked-up below.

This would, for example, make preparing reporting messages easier, because relevant documents, or perhaps a superset of them, would already be attached to the draft reporting message AppColl generates.

Alternatively, the Edit Template UI could be augmented to include a similar checkbox, as mocked up below.

@scott_appcoll Could you give an example of such an e-mail address? I tried "xxxxxxGTEST-0001@intake.appcoll.com" and "xxxxxxC26TEST-0001@intake.appcoll.com," but neither message made it to my matter that has an attorney ref. of TEST-0001. I did not get an "undeliverable" error from my e-mail client, and I did not receive a message from AppColl saying that an unauthorized person sent an e-mail message. What is the "[account intake id]?"
'Sorry for being dense.
-George

AppColl can generate a Terminal Disclaimer (TD) from within a matter detail page with the "Create USPTO Forms" button, such as using an AIA/25, 26, or 63 form. However, the AIA/25 form has a 40-character limit in the "applicant" field. The limit in the AIA/26 form is 45 characters. In the AIA/63 form, there does not appear to be a character limit, in that the form field is a multi-line field, and the character size keeps shrinking, if you continue typing text.

If the applicant name stored in AppColl exceeds the 40- or 45-character limit when generating an AIA/25 or AIA/26 TD, characters beyond the limit are truncated. This will very likely cause the TD to be disapproved, because the applicant's name on the TD will not exactly match the applicant's name on an earlier-filed Application Data Sheet. (My TD was disapproved today.)

I spoke with a USPTO representative in the OPLC. She advised entering something like, "See below <asterisk>" in the applicant field, and then adding a text box below "WARNING: Information on this form may become public..." that includes the applicant, for example, "* Acme Cartoon Props, Inc."

I suggest that, when AppColl generates a TD, if the applicant is longer than 40 characters, put "(See below *)" in the applicant field, and add a text field below the WARNING with the full applicant name. If this is not possible, I strongly suggest AppColl display an error message, to prevent a user filing a TD that is going to be DOA.

-George

AppColl provides some nice text formatting syntax for use in templates, such as "ToUpper" and "AddPeriodToInitials." I suggest a new syntax to avoid double periods at the end of a sentence. For example, I have a template letter that includes a sentence along the lines of, "(so-and-so) needs to sign the assignment, to accept it on behalf of {Matter.Applicants}." However, some applicants' names end in periods (ex., Acme Exploding Cigars, Inc.), whereas other applicants' names do not end in periods (ex., Elmer J. Fudd Enterprises). Thus, sometimes my template generates a sentence with two periods at the end (one from "Inc." and the other from the template).
I know it seems like a minor annoyance to delete the extra period, but it would be really nice to automate the deletion.
Thanks.
-George

@Timothy Several people requested that syntax be added to enable conditional selection of field contents, such as when a first field is null. See the thread at https://forum.appcoll.com/topic/201/syntax-for-alternate-field-when-a-first-field-is-blank. I, for one, still would like to see such syntax added. For one thing, it would alleviate the need for one-off special fields, such as {Matter.ClientContact.NicknameOrFirst}, in that we users could program our own such fields.

Also see this thread (https://forum.appcoll.com/topic/204/add-calculations-if-then-logic-and-database-queries-to-template-fields?_=1704255780781) on a related topic.

When a To, Cc, or Bcc field in an e-mail template is populated with a comma, such as by a field code, AppColl replaces the comma with a semicolon. On the surface, this makes sense, since it allows a user to use commas to enter a list of e-mail address field codes in the template and in contact detail records, and the resulting string (with semicolons, instead of commas, separating the addresses) is acceptable to e-mail agents.

However, when a client name includes a comma, for example between the first part of the client’s name and “Inc.,” the resulting string causes an unwanted character, i.e., a semicolon, to be included in the address, which needs to be manually edited before sending the message.

For example, I have a client whose name is of the form “Xxxxxx (USA), Inc.” If I use a field code, such as {Invoice.BillTo.Company}, in the “To:” or “Cc:” field, the comma gets replaced with a semicolon. Worse, if I send the message without manually deleting the semicolons, the display names in the sent message header get messed up.

My Default Invoice Email template includes the following in the "To:" address:

{Invoice. BillTo. First} {Invoice. BillTo Last} {Invoice. BillTo. Company} <(Invoice. BillTo.EmailNoCC}>

to create a nice display name in the delivered e-mail message.

However, in the case of my client with a comma in its name, AppColl generates something like:

Nicole Sxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx (USA); Inc. <nicole@xxxxxxxx.com>

"Nicole Sxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx (USA)" is considered to be an e-mail address, because it is separated from following text by a semicolon. However, "Nicole Sxxx..." is not a valid e-mail address, so it gets dropped, and the display name ends up being simply "Inc." which isn't very pretty.

I realize that AppColl has been replacing commas with semicolons for quite a while now, and many users may have templates that rely on such behavior. However, the behavior causes problems for client names that include commas. I'm not sure what to suggest.

-George

@BrandonK6644 I agree. Other docket management systems (ex., Clio, I believe) have nice implementations of this. You click on a document in the docket management system web page, and the document downloads to your computer (ex., to the Downloads folder), and your preferred application automatically launches to open the document. When you close the document, the document is automatically uploaded back to the the docket management system. It is all transparent.

In some implementations, a program runs in the background to make this magic happen. The docket management system communicates with the background program telling it what the user clicked on, and the background program launches the application program, pointing the application to the downloaded file. The background program monitors the downloaded file, and after the application closes the file, the background program automatically sends the edited file back to the docket management system.

Also see this Forum thread for information about invoice fields.

When adding a new invoice in the Manage Invoices module, AppColl requires a "Cut-off Date."

No Billing Items after this date are included in the bill, which makes sense.
The generated bill shows the date it was generated (see green outline), which also makes sense. However, the generated bill says "Items through <date>" (see red outline), where <date> is the generated-on date, NOT the Cut-off Date.

This is misleading to the client. In the example shown here, the bill was generated on October 3, 2024, but it includes items only through the end of September. Yet, the bill appears on its face to cover through October 3. If my next bill to this client includes billing items dated 10/1 - 10/3, the client will think I am billing him twice.
Please change the way the Manage Invoices module inserts the "Items through" date to put the "Cut-off Date," not the generated-on date. Thanks.
-George

As I noted in another post, an AppColl form letter can be used to easily generate an XML (TXT) file that contains almost everything needed to record assignments, by uploading the XML file to ePAS. The primary missing information is per-inventor and per-assignee assignment execution dates, which AppColl does not store. Thus, if AppColl added these dates in each matter, this form letter would become even more useful.

Please consider adding per-inventor and per-assignee assignment execution dates. Thanks.

Congratulations! Based on the product quality and support, I would have voted for you.

AppColl nicely generates USPTO filled-in forms from a matter detail page, including generating Application Data Sheets (ADSs).

There are two USPTO Customer Number fields in an ADS: one in the "Correspondence Information" box and another in the "Representative Information" box. AppColl apparently uses the client's customer number (if there is one, otherwise it uses the matter's attorney customer number if there is one, otherwise the attorney's address) for the matter to fill in the first box, but AppColl apparently uses the law firm's attorney's customer number (if there is one, otherwise it uses the client's customer number if it has one, otherwise the attorney's address) for the second box. Thus, it is possible for AppColl to generate an ADS with two different customer numbers. This does not inherently pose a problem, but for AppColl users who have multiple customer numbers, such as some customer numbers they share with clients, care should be exercised.

According to a customer service representative at the USPTO, the difference between the two ADS fields is as follows: The PTO will send correspondence to the address associated to the "Correspondence Information" customer number and give that customer number access to the application via Patent Center. The PTO will accept prosecution instructions, such as amendments, from practitioners associated with the customer number in the "Representative Information" field. While these two things seem quite similar, the representative noted that the Representative Information customer number can be used to provide access to the application by a number of practitioners, such as via a power of attorney (if the PoA lists a customer number), although the PTO would not necessarily send correspondence to these practitioners.

This came up, because I have a client that wants me to use a customer number that includes its in-house patent agent. So, I have a special customer number for just this client's work. I put that customer number in the client's contact record, and AppColl puts this number in the Correspondence Information customer number field of ADSs. But, AppColl puts my firm's main customer number in the other ADS field (Representative Information). So, if I don't manually change it to the client-specific customer number, the generated ADS has two different customer numbers.

This led to an awkward situation. An examiner allowed the in-house patent agent to sit in on an interview but not talk, because the in-house agent was listed only under the Correspondence Information customer number, not under the Representative Information customer number.

Again, this doesn't necessarily pose a problem, but AppColl users should be aware of how these two ADS fields are filled.

I do, however, wish AppColl provided us control over which database fields are used to populate each of the ADS customer number fields. Perhaps some check boxes on the matter details page could be used to select which database fields are used.

-George

Most grid-based displays, such as the email folder of each matter, allow a user to select which fields to display and the columns in which to display them, which is nice. However, the email folder always displays the "Name" and "Revision" fields in columns 1 and 2. Furthermore, the Name field is often messy, because it contains lots of information, such as date & time, subject line (our and our foreign associate's docket numbers, application number, etc.) Thus, the Name field is often not helpful to quickly understand the contents of the email message. Fortunately, the "Notes" field is available to store an abstract of the message, for example, "Instructions to F/A to pay issue fee."

I would like the Notes field to be displayed in the first column, but that is not currently possible.

Please enable us to fully select which fields (including the Name and Revision fields) are, and are not, displayed in the email page, and the order in which these fields are displayed.

Thanks.
George

@KozueL5421 This is but one of may shortcomings of Patent Center. Several groups and individual practitioners have complained to the USPTO about abandoning EFS-Web and Private PAIR in favor of Patent Center, at least until Patent Center is capable of reliably providing all the services of the prior systems, and about the PTO's plan to require DOCX submissions. See, for example:

https://www.aipla.org/detail/news/2023/10/30/aipla-comments-on-patent-center-and-the-retirement-of-efs-web-and-private-pair

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/national-association-of-patent-practitioners_members-of-the-napp-board-met-with-senior-activity-7127684464964448256-ctgM/

https://ipwatchdog.com/2023/11/05/patent-community-slams-usptos-rush-retire-old-software-systems-despite-patent-center-problems/id=169221/

https://ipwatchdog.com/2023/11/07/uspto-delays-transition-patent-center/id=169435/

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4620375 (Letter of 82 Intellectual Property Professionals to OIRA and Commerce IG relating to non-readiness of Patent Center, requesting delay of retirement of EFS-Web and Private PAIR, Nov. 1, 2023)

https://www.aipla.org/detail/news/2023/10/31/aipla-comments-to-omb-on-docx

https://blog.oppedahl.com/an-open-letter-to-uspto-director-vidal-about-patent-center/

https://blog.oppedahl.com/napp-met-with-uspto-about-patent-center-yesterday/#comment-10049

When replying to an e-mail message within the Conversations tab, I can use an e-mail template, which is nice. However, only the message body from the template is used. The subject line specification in the template is ignored. Instead, the subject line of the message being replied to is used.
Please let me use the template to customize the subject line in the reply message.
It is sometimes desirable to keep the original subject line. So, for complete generality, please add a template field along the lines of {email.subject} to enable the template to refer to the original subject line of the message being replied to. Along those lines, it would be really nice to have template fields like {email.from}, {email.to}, {email.cc}, and {email.date}, too.
Thanks,
George

@mike_appcoll The Signature module looks like it will be handy.

Hopefully you will soon be able to lift the current limitation of only one signer per document. My assignments typically include a group of inventors. Although I could generate an assignment per inventor, recording all those assignments would be a pain. Recording a single assignment with all the inventors is much simpler, and I believe clients would prefer a single document listing all the inventors.

Furthermore, I like to have an assignee sign assignments to accept the assignment. This is perhaps more important in Europe than in the US, but lack of an assignee's signature could be fatal in some jurisdictions. Having separate assignments for US rights and other jurisdiction rights would be very complex: The US assignment would have to carve out the rights that will be assigned by the "foreign" assignment.

Thanks,
George

@SadiqA2304 That's right. I thought it sounded familiar!

@gregg_appcoll DocuSign accepts a list of people, to whom a "package" [Edit: DocuSign calls it an "envelope."] is then sent.

The package can contain several documents, which is economical, because a DocuSign subscription includes a fixed number of packages per month, regardless the number of documents in each package or number of recipients of the packages. Having each declaration and each assignment sent as a separate DocuSign package would quickly exhaust my monthly subscription limit.

After filing a patent application at the USPTO, I send a DocuSign package to the inventors, assignee, the AppColl matter-specific e-mail address, and (in some cases) in-house patent counsel. I designate the inventor and assignee addresses "Needs to sign," and I designate the AppColl matter and in-house counsel addresses "Receives a copy." "Receives a copy" recipients receive read-only copies of the package.

The package contains a copy of the application (as filed, including drawings), a declaration(s), and an assignment. It is important to include a copy of the application, to ensure there is no doubt the inventors have seen the application and can, therefore, make the required statements ("The above-identified application was made or authorized to be made by me" and "I believe that I am the original inventor or an original joint inventor of a claimed invention in the application.") I use the declarations generated by AppColl. I have a "form letter" assignment that AppColl fills in with bibliographic information (application number, inventor names, etc.) (See my Top/FormLetters/Assignment.docx)

I also have an AppColl form letter (see Top/FormLetters/DocuSign - Assignment and declaration cover letter) that AppColl fills in with specifics. I copy the contents of the generated letter into the subject line and cover letter fields DocuSign provides.

DocuSign sends the packages simultaneously to everyone (unless I specify a "signing order," which I never do.) Each recipient's e-mail message includes a link to a DocuSign page, which guides the recipient to the place or places where the recipient needs to sign (if he/she needs to sign). In-house counsel can use the link to check who has signed and hound procrastinators. (On the DocuSign page, click "Other Actions" and select "View History." Look for things like: "xxx opened the envelope," "xxx viewed the envelope," and "xxx signed the envelope.") In addition, DocuSign sends reminders every ten days (the interval is selectable) to people who have not opened their e-mail messages, and DocuSign lets me know when everyone has signed. Having DocuSign send a message to the matter mailbox is handy for documenting what has happened and when.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

-George

Attaching documents to an e-mail message, when generating and sending an e-mail message for a matter, is straightforward, as long as the documents are in folders associated to the matter, i.e., in AsFiled, Email, OfficialCorrespondence, etc. However, to attach a prior art document, such as when reporting an Office Action, one must look in the References folder, which contains all prior art documents stored by AppColl, not just prior art references for this matter. That can be a long list, and finding exactly the desired document can be tricky, given the file names, which typically contain many digits.

I suggest augmenting the "Attach Document or Form Letter" document chooser so it also lists prior art documents associated to the matter. AppColl already knows which prior art documents are associated to the matter. (AppColl displays them in the Matter Prior Art > [select a matter] screen.) I suggest a UI something like the following:

-George