PTO-Patent Reengineering - Applicant Feedback Word Validation Tool

OMB Control Number 0690-0030

Expiration Date: 04/30/14

Pre-watching the Video Survey Questions

1. Do you author patent documents (initial application and/or follow-ons) using Microsoft Word?

   1. Yes

   2. No

2. Do you use any other word processing application to author patent documents?

   1. WordPerfect

   2. OpenOffice

   3. Google Docs

   4. Star Office

   5. Apple Pages

   6. Other___________________

3. Do you currently receive patent documents authored by the applicant in Word or from any other word processing application?

   1. Yes

   2. No

4. If Yes, does the firm make any changes to the document or is it converted to PDF as is?

   1. Yes

   2. No

   3. If needed

5. Do you have any reservations using Word to submit patent documents to the USPTO?

   1. Yes

   2. No

   3. If Yes, what?_________________________________

6. Does the phrase “validation tool” make you think of ePAVE or PASAT?

   1. Yes

   2. No

Post-watching the Video Survey Questions

7. After viewing the video of validator tool, do you have any reservations about using it?

   1. Yes

   2. No

   3. If Yes, what ____________________

8. Do you have any recommendations on how to improve it?

   1. Yes

   2. No

   3. If Yes, What_________________________________

9. Would you use in its current state?

   1. Yes

   2. No

10. Do you think that the validation errors uncovered by the tool would decrease and eventually not become an issue through user experience?

    1. Yes

    2. No

11. Should a form of the validation tool be used in a future version of e-filing, would a training video help to minimize any apprehension?

    1. Yes

    2. No

12. Currently, the validation tool provides the user the option to remove all identified validation errors and allows the user to create a new document that has all validation issues removed.

    1. If you accepted the new validated document, would you then review the document to check for other changes made during the validation process?

       1. Yes

       2. No

    2. Would you rather have the tool identify the errors incrementally so that you could make the corrections on the source document?

       1. Yes

       2. No

13. Would you use a web based ‘cut and paste’ submission process in lieu of submitting patent documents in Word or in any other word processing format?

    1. Yes

    2. No

    3. Would need to see it first

14. Has the need and importance been clearly conveyed why the USPTO needs to receive text from the applicant?

    1. Yes

    2. No

15. Have the benefits to the applicant been clearly conveyed if text is submitted to the USPTO?

    1. Yes

    2. No

16. Other comments?

__________________________________________________

This information collection contains requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, no person is required to respond to, nor shall any person be subject to penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the PRA, unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB Control Number. The estimated response time for this collection is 90 minutes. The response time includes the time for reviewing the instructions, viewing the video, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

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