I reported earlier this year on the Israel PTO’s updating of its public patent database, and concomitant loss of some documents in the migration. This week, the ILPTO sent not one but two emails regarding the database. It’s possible these emails were also posted on its website, but since the website was re-done in May, it’s a lot harder to find information. Using the site’s search engine, I found the second of these notices here. That notice reminds people that certain prior art documents filed by applicants as part of their duty of disclosure are not available on the public database (viz. those documents subject to copyright), but provides contact information for individuals who wish to obtain copies.
The first notice, which I couldn’t find on the ILPTO web site but may be hiding somewhere in there, trumpets many new features now available in the database: searching according to various events in the file by data or name of event (acceptance of application; filing of opposition; office action response; request to amend; opposition to amendment; request for patent cancellation by third party; request for cancellation by patentee; patent term extension (PTE) requests; intent to grant PTE per §64E(c); intent to grant PTE per §64E(e)(1); supplemental intent to grant PTE per §64E(e)(3); opposition to PTE; grant of PTE; reinstatement request; addition or removal of inventor; assignment of patent; change in representative or representative address; removal of representative; recordation or removal of license, lien, or pledge; merger; change of name or address of patentee); addition of information about expected first office action or subsequent office action in response to an applicant’s answer; searching PTE info by name of active ingredient listed in the PTE. According to the notice, search results can also be downloaded in Excel format.
I have not tested to see if any of these new features are actually available. If they are, they’re nice to have, and in some ways far better than what, say, the USPTO offers (e.g. for searching IPRs). But I have something more basic that interests me.
I filed a patent application at the end of the Paris Convention year, claiming priority from an application that’s available via DAS. At the time I filed, I made the priority claim, but didn’t have a copy of the priority application itself and didn’t have the DAS access code. Subsequently the client supplied me with the DAS access code, and asked the ILPTO to download a copy of the priority document. I made an entry in my docket to follow-up to be sure the copy of the priority document had been downloaded.
Not having heard from the ILPTO that document was retrieved, but also not having heard that it couldn’t be retrieved, this week, per my docket, I checked the ILPTO patent database. My instruction letter was there, but the priority document was not. After a few phone calls I reached someone at the ILPTO who’s familiar with the DAS process, who assured me that the priority document was there, and visible in the ILPTO’s own internal database.
What’s the point of a public database that doesn’t show copies of priority documents, or more generally that does not indicate to practitioners that their instructions have been acted upon by the ILPTO?
And those documents that went missing back in March when they migrated to the new database still aren’t visible.
Contrasted with the ILPTO touting all these great improvements in the database, the failure to indicate that the priority document was retrieved, and the continued absence of certain other documents, is like the people behind this database saying, “Let them eat cake”.