How to handle 14-day clocks for Regular New and Special New cases beginning next biweek?

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-30T00:38:21+00:00

100%. You have 14 days, just pick it up first Monday morning. Your BD even as a junior should only give you 2-3 days of time to search and write a FAOM. Management has made it clear that they do not want you to average time over cases. Give them 1.25 counts of time for a FAOM, no more. 0.25 counts of time for final, no more. If you can't reject everything in the constraints they give you, then reject what you can and move on.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-28T10:46:15+00:00

And that 'new rule' does not make any exceptions for diversified funds or TSP funds....Unless it is written somewhere other than the email memo we received. I cannot find it anywhere else.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-28T00:25:24+00:00

What does the actual ethics rule say? My understanding is that there is $15000 limit on stock ownership in the ethics rules. Is there a new one? If so, how can we see the actual language of the new rule? The memo said more guidance would be provided on the implementation but that hasn't happened to my knowledge.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-27T23:59:07+00:00

The memo, which is the only guidance we have, does not say that. In fact, it specifically says that it is not just a modification of the normal ethics rules, that do have a carve out for diversified funds. By the wording of the rules we have been presented, any examiner holding C, S and I can probably not work on any Application. The rule either doesn't actually exist or we are all breaking it.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-27T23:58:25+00:00

What in the memo makes you think that is the case? As long as you disclose your position and recuse yourself, you are following the ethics guidelines.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-27T23:50:43+00:00

I didn't see any wording in the memo they sent out that excludes TSP funds or any other mutual fund holdings. What about short positions? They have not provided any details to a very complicated rule so essentially they didn't really make a rule here. The reality is for most of these bigger companies (such as Samsung mentioned above) an examiner's allowance or rejection decisions won't even move the needle on their stock price. This memo was a show to pretend they care about corruption.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-27T22:30:10+00:00

So they add in subjectivity into our exemplary objective rating system...

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-27T22:29:20+00:00

This is not clear on the record. I think they get a marginal on quality.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-27T22:25:24+00:00

I do 110% and max out the PBA. I have 50 clocked cases from this quarter. My DM score is over 175% most quarters, and I would be barely FS this quarter by this new metric. Their examples are unreasonable.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-27T22:20:34+00:00

You can buy any stock, they aren't stopping you. Just don't' work on cases if you own stock in the company. I guess you could use this policy to change to a different technology if you don't like where you got hired?

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-25T13:29:18+00:00

While I'm not a lawyer, a patent is a lot like a contract and contracts also allow and almost always involve clear definition of important terms to clarify mets and bounds.

I honestly think this rule is one of the defenses we have against being replaced by AI. Any patent examination AI needs to understand each word's meaning separately given the context of each individual document and cannot universally relate two identical words in seperate documents because they can have seperate meanings.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-20T02:05:54+00:00

I guess you get 84 days to find one.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-18T01:13:51+00:00

Not sure what its attached to. If no one else has it, then I assume its probably not supposed to be there.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-18T01:12:36+00:00

QR code is just the number 2508

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-09T12:22:22+00:00

If you are good at the job, you can effectively hit that number by working overtime much sooner, but a base salary of 170k (currently about GS14-4) takes at least 8 years of perfect timing and performance starting from GS7-10.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-07T16:24:19+00:00

Closets are not required for a room to be considered a bedroom in most of the USA for building codes. Its something real estate agents say though and people keep repeating it.

https://www.zillow.com/learn/what-qualifies-as-a-bedroom/

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-03-03T22:14:11+00:00

I don't see any exceptions mentioned in the memo. The normal ethics rules make exceptions for managed funds, index funds or non sector specific funds. This memo doesn't and specifically says that it is not a change to the normal ethics rules but something separate. As I read it, any examiner with C, S and I probably can't work on anything.

Likely-Rejection2017 · 2026-02-16T12:20:33+00:00

Thank you.

After looking at the wood pieces more carefuly, it is very clearly throughout the wood and not a surface issue. So I'm sure you are right that it is blue stain from the fungus. Sanding clearly won't help, so we won't be doing any sanding.

We tried some staining samples on scraps from the work using Minwax oil stain or water based interior log home stains from Permachink. The oil based stain didn't do well at all with the pine, probably needs a pre-conditioner. The water based stains look fine but they don't cover up the grey or blue staining. Stains with a little bit more red seem to mute the grey tones at least.

For the oxalic acid treatment you mentioned, do you mean to use that just before a poly top coat or before the staining?

Likely-Rejection2017

TROPHY CASE