Who says the USPTO is not listening?
Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at November 22, 2005 08:56 AM
Did you catch this? Last week, Steve posted another “thing we hate about the USPTO.gov web site.” In that rant, Steve detailed one of our favorite frustrations about the web site — the fact that, before Sunday, you had to include the dub-dub-dub (www) in the URL, or you were out of luck.
Then, magically, the problem was fixed on Sunday.
Hmmmm. It could be a coincidence, right? Yes, but highly unlikely. That problem has existed for as long as the three of us can remember. It’s nearly popped a vein in my head at least 100 times.
The better explanation is that they’re listening. That’s right, the big governmental agency that is the United States Patent and Trademark Office is listening to the blogosphere. And someone, somewhere inside the agency fixed, nay, changed, something as a result. How cool is that?
I wonder how long it would have taken to achieve this simple change had we submitted a letter or formal complaint of some sort?
It’s amazing that such a small technical change can be symbolic for something so big.
We love the USPTO. We really do. We want to see the agency improve…and we’re glad to help. We’ll keep talking, and hopefully they’ll keep listening. You can help with the talking side of the equation — If you have any suggestions, ideas, complaints, etc., let us know…
J. Matthew Buchanan 
Stephen M. Nipper 
Douglas Sorocco 
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Comments
Russ Krajec Says:
November 23, 2005 09:00 PM
My experience with the PTO is that nearly everyone I have ever dealt with, from the examiners to someone answering the phone, is that they have bent over backwards to help. They get a bunch of abuse from the patent attorneys, some of it deserved, but much of it is unwarranted, IMHO.