a rant about the Office of Petitions
Mar. 19th, 2006 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaylarudbekI have been dealing with the Office of Petitions for weeks on end trying to get a petition out of them on an application that we need to pay the issue fee on.
Really irritating things:
1) the initial voicemail menu has four options only one of which is vaguely useful to a patent attorney/agent or inventor who is calling the Office of Petitions specifically about a petition on an application. The other three options are general information more suited to the PTO main number/help desk.
The options should be as follows: "if you have a general question about patents or trademarks, press 1. if you have a question about the status of a petition you have filed, press 2." one should take you to the general information at the main PTO number, 2 should take you to an option for inputting the application serial number by touchtone.
2) There is no option in the voicemail to leave a message re the status of the petition on application serial number xx/xxx,xxx.
3) No one at the Petitions help desk (once actually reached by going through the receptionist from the voicemail) will give out their name or extension so that one can actually talk to the same person a second time to check and see what the status of a petition is, instead of having the same damned petition docketed four times by four separate people.
4) The names/numbers of the Petitions examiners etc are not given on the PTO website as far as I've been able to find out. There is only one voice number and one fax number listed for the Office of Petitions on the entire website.
Grrr. I am almost to the point of filing a FOIA request just so that I can get a roster of paralegals at the Petitions help desk. If the examiners in other parts of the PTO are listed, why not the petitions examiners/staff?
Really irritating things:
1) the initial voicemail menu has four options only one of which is vaguely useful to a patent attorney/agent or inventor who is calling the Office of Petitions specifically about a petition on an application. The other three options are general information more suited to the PTO main number/help desk.
The options should be as follows: "if you have a general question about patents or trademarks, press 1. if you have a question about the status of a petition you have filed, press 2." one should take you to the general information at the main PTO number, 2 should take you to an option for inputting the application serial number by touchtone.
2) There is no option in the voicemail to leave a message re the status of the petition on application serial number xx/xxx,xxx.
3) No one at the Petitions help desk (once actually reached by going through the receptionist from the voicemail) will give out their name or extension so that one can actually talk to the same person a second time to check and see what the status of a petition is, instead of having the same damned petition docketed four times by four separate people.
4) The names/numbers of the Petitions examiners etc are not given on the PTO website as far as I've been able to find out. There is only one voice number and one fax number listed for the Office of Petitions on the entire website.
Grrr. I am almost to the point of filing a FOIA request just so that I can get a roster of paralegals at the Petitions help desk. If the examiners in other parts of the PTO are listed, why not the petitions examiners/staff?
