Note: this article applies to e-filings that were made with ePave 4.1.
When you run ePave, you fill in all sorts of blanks, and then you electronically "sign" the patent application. The Patent Office would probably say that this means you are personally responsible for its contents. And yet, after you have completed and filed one or two of these electronic applications, it may cross your mind to want to have a nice clear unequivocal paper record of what you filed. Indeed, the client oddly enough might want to know what you filed, and may want to receive it in print form. Finally, your partners who have not done EFS filings might have some quaint, old-fashioned notion that your office ought to have a physical file containing a paper copy of what was filed.
For any of these reasons, you may find yourself wanting to print out what you filed. And if your experience is like mine, you will go back and try to re-open your files, and several things will disappoint you. First, you may well find that when you open the XML file with your XML browser (i.e. Internet Explorer 5.5), the figures aren't visible any more. So you can print the text of the application but not the figures. Second, you can try and try and you will not be able to find anything to show what you told the Patent Office about the number of claims, or the deposit account, or the names of the inventors, or the continuity data, or the claim from a foreign patent application. You could run ePave again, selecting your previous ".epp" ("ePave Project) file. But you will find that ePave won't let you see your filing again. Instead, ePave will refuse to do anything except show you the Acknowledgment Receipt again.
Suppose the Patent Office later issues the patent, omitting two of the inventors from the front page of the patent, and you decide to request a Certificate of Correction. How do you prove that you did provide the two inventors' names when you filed? How do you prove it is the Patent Office's mistake and not yours?
You might think that some of the answers might be found in the "acknowledgment receipt" that you receive after performing an EFS filing. (You can recognize the data file that is the "acknowledgment receipt" because its filename ends with ".rsp".) Here is a typical one, with a few fields changed to protect client confidentiality. As you see, the receipt lists a number of files. Some of the file names are a bit mysterious. I have added a few comments for the files that I have learned about.
Acknowledgment Receipt: APPLICATION NUMBER: 09681014 - this is your application serial number FIRST NAMED INVENTOR: Carl Jones TITLE OF INVENTION: System with improved button-actuated spray mechanism ATTORNEY DOCKET NUMBER: CLNTP002 FILE LISTING: tranp002.xml 4813 Bytes - the transmittal letter p002apds.xml 5270 Bytes - the application data sheet u-bibdat.dtd 35690 Bytes - the data type definition for bibliographic data e-bibdat.xsl 22130 Bytes - the style sheet for the bibliographic data p002fee.xml 2552 Bytes - the fee transmittal u-feetra.dtd 36714 Bytes - the data type definition for the fee transmittal e-feetra.xsl 14377 Bytes - the style sheet for the fee transmittal p002w.xml 30812 Bytes - the XML specification u-specif.dtd 106427 Bytes - data type definition for the specification specif.xsl 29904 Bytes - style sheet for the specification p002sh1w.tif 15616 Bytes - Figure 1 p002sh2w.tif 16696 Bytes - Figure 2 p002sh3w.tif 17324 Bytes - Figure 3 p002sh4w.tif 17400 Bytes - Figure 4 p002sh5w.tif 13500 Bytes - Figure 5 p002sh6w.tif 9992 Bytes - Figure 6 EFS ID: 10654 FILE SIZE: 144547 Bytes TIMESTAMP: Sat Nov 18 19:50:29 EST 2000 MESSAGE DIGEST: iRw4SMi0MusKT+DQSjpszA== DIGITAL CERTIFICATE HOLDER NAME: cn=Carl Oppedahl, ou=Registered Attorneys UPLOAD STATUS: You have successfully uploaded your submission to USPTO
The files with green comments are the same every time you file an EFS application -- they define the data types and style sheets used in the specification, in the fee transmittal, in the bibliographic data, and so on.
The files with red comments are the ones that make your EFS filing different from someone else's EFS filing. They are generally XML and TIF files, as you can see. The filed called "p002w.xml" is my patent application. I know this because it is the name I gave to the file when I created it using PASAT/Word. The TIF files listed here are the figures. If you were to file with a declaration or power of attorney or small entity status form, then these would also be listed as TIF files.
Why can't I view my specification XML file correctly any more? If your experience is like mine, you will soon enough find that when you try to view a specification XML file for a filed application, it won't show the figures any more. It may have shown the figures when you viewed the XML file prior to filing, but now that the filing is done, you suddenly can't see the figures any more. By poking around inside your specification XML file (for example, using Notepad to view the raw XML code) you will see why it is that you can't view your specification XML file. It turns out that the specification XML file contains an "absolute" directory path and file name for each figure. If you then move the XML file elsewhere, for example to another computer, it won't show the figures because the "absolute" path doesn't work from the new location. What is clear is that you *must* print out your specification before you file the application. You can't wait until afterwards.
The only exception to this that I can find is that you may, if you are fortunate, still have your "s4w" file around somewhere. That file you can probably still load into PASAT/Word and see your figures and print them.
What about the other three files -- "tran ... .xml", "... apds.xml", and "... fee.xml"? They were clearly sent to the Patent Office, which we know because they are listed in the receipt. But what are they, exactly? To find out what these three files are, you might be tempted to look around on your computer's hard disk to see where they are. Surely they are somewhere on your hard disk, since they were transmitted to the Patent Office. But you will not find them anywhere on your hard disk. It seems that the ePave program creates them and then deletes them after they have been sent to the Patent Office.
The key, as it turns out, is to find the "ZIP" file which ePave actually sent to the Patent Office. Its name starts with "dtf" and ends with ".zip". In this case, the ZIP file is called "dtfp002.zip". Unzip this file into a separate subdirectory on your hard disk, using a standard unzipping utility. (One such utility is Winzip.) You will find that you have at least ten files, most having names that match names that were in the Acknowledgment Receipt. In particular, the three mysterious files "tran ... .xml", "...apds.xml", and "...fee.xml" will be there. You can view each of them with your XML browser (Internet Explorer 5.5). The file beginning "tran" is the transmittal form. The file ending with "apds.xml" is the application data sheet. The file ending with "fee.xml" is the fee transmittal sheet. The application data sheet contains your attorney docket number, your customer number, the continuity data, and the inventor information. The fee transmittal sheet shows the filing fees and other fees. The transmittal form shows the title, your name, and your attorney registration number. Using your XML browser, you can print out these three files. You can then put the printouts into your file, or can send them to the client.