When the Israel PTO moved to electronic filing in June 2016, no one had thought about the importance of providing the filer with confirmation that a filing had been made and what had been filed. Upon discovering this, at least one veteran member of the profession went to Jerusalem and spoke with the senior ILPTO employee responsible for the new system, explaining that that’s not acceptable. The ILPTO’s response was to have the system create a document called an ishur klitat sal – literally “confirmation of reception of basket” – that would be emailed back to the filer, along with copies of the documents submitted, which confirmed that the files were now in the ILPTO’s electronic system. And a day or two later, one could see those files in the public database.
Admittedly, it’s a clumsy way to do things. The USPTO’s EFS, for example, simply issued a filing acknowledgement, that listed the documents submitted (including filename) and a hash function value for each document, so that one could prove something had been filed if necessary later on. And sometimes there were delays in issuing the ishur klitat sal. But it worked. Filers also had the option of instructing the system to email them an ishur shlihkat sal, “confirmation of sending of basket”, which showed that a group of documents had been submitted.
Additionally, if a fee is involved, the system kicks the user out of the ILPTO’s filing system and into the general State of Israel payment system. Klunky, but that system immediately issues a payment receipt, and since you can’t get to the payment system until after you’ve submitted your documents, one effectively had immediate proof that something had been submitted and a fee paid.
I’ve been writing about these things in the past tense, but the fact is they’re all still true. You still get an ishur klitat sal for everything you file…except for new patent applications. Last year the ILPTO changed to a new system for filing new applications. There are some nice features in this new system (like the ILPTO populating the data fields for national phase applications with data taken directly from WIPO, and the option to have the ILPTO take the specification, claims, drawings and sequence listings directly from WIPO as well). But it has one glaring drawback, and that is that there’s no ishur klitat sal anymore for newly-filed patent applications. And there’s not even an option to send your yourself confirmation that a new application has been submitted. The best you can do is go into the system and see all the applications listed under your account, and check the status of each. If the status is listed as niklat (“received”), you’re good.
I note that even this is wonky: the system lists the date on which the entry was created, the date on which the entry was last modified, and the PCT application number if applicable. If you want to see the documents that were filed, you have to go into the entry…but when you exist, the “last modified” date will be changed to the date on which you view the entry. Even if it’s an already-filed application and all you’re doing is looking at the data an documents on file.
This led to a new experience this week, one that’s still unresolved. I filed a national phase application, clicked “submit”, and paid the fee. I immediately got the payment receipt. But no filing receipt was forthcoming. Not that day. Not the next day. Not the day after. So I went back into the system for filing new applications, and found that this application is listed as “draft”. Not “received”, not “transferred to payment”, not “ready for filing”. Draft. As if it was never submitted.
I wrote to the ILPTO about this, and while I was writing this post, received a response in which the writer told me that the application was listed as “draft” and that I should log in and submit it again. I wrote back and explained that the system would still not list the application as “received” because I wasn’t going to pay the filing fee a second time, and that in any event she hadn’t explained how this could have happened.
For now there’s nothing to do, because as I write the system is haywire and won’t us into the “file a new application” or “my filing” interfaces. (We can apparently still do follow-on filings under the old system.)
The good news is the 30 month deadline is still a few weeks away, so we have time to sort this out.
I wonder if the same programmers who work for the USPTO are working for ILPTO.
Follow up, a few hours later:
The new application part of the system came back online.The ILPTO person said that since payment was made, if I file the application that the system has recorded as "draft", it will take the new application and not request money. And that's what happened. I now have a filing receipt for the application. So the system knew payment had been made for this application, even though the application hadn't yet been filed.
Additionally, the ILPTO person said that in the next version of the system, there will be some way to warn people that an application was not successfully filed. That's good, because I wonder what would have happened if I had done this filing on the 30-month deadline - would I have to petition for late national phase entry? I would argue, no, the payment receipt is itself evidence that I filed, and the fact that the ILPTO's computer system hiccuped is their problem.
Anyway, all's well that ends well.