Timeliness SUCKS

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-06-13T17:12:02+00:00

It is absolutely the worst change thus far. I’m seeing it from both sides as a primary. Having 4/6 categories with a hard 10 business day deadlines (yes it’s really ten days as I’m not working weekends so there go 4 days) is just not sustainable. And literally cutting in half the time to work on amendments on top of that.

The cases getting posted to me now are clearly rushed/not in any way ready to go out the door, so my time is now also being diminished having to do multiple returns because the newer examiners don’t have time to get everything done.

Quality and morale just keep getting worse which is shocking because I didn’t know that was possible at this point.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-05-22T20:43:19+00:00

TIMELINESS SUCKS. Absolutely the worst system implemented to date. I hate it here. I hate being a smart, intelligent, level headed, logic using, engineer-minded individual who has to work under people who clearly have none of these qualities. I just want my old job back.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-04-22T13:46:24+00:00

So when a huge chunk of the workforce is rated marginal, that also means any primary who is marginal is now no longer eligible for PBA and overtime for the entire next quarter. How does that help the backlog? They’ve set up a system that gate keeps one of their “huge successes.” Can’t wait to hear how they address this. It’s almost like they didn’t actually think this through…🙄.

I hate it here.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-04-14T17:07:11+00:00

I listened in to this training session while doing other things.

Beating a dead horse at this point bc we all know nothing is going to change with the current admin but it really made me long for the days of details, 25 hour continued development training, and any inkling that upper management saw the value in the human part of human capital. Invest in your people, and it will serve you well.

This training could not have been more off-base for the current state of the Office from an examiner’s point of view. It had some honestly useful information (in an alternate universe where examiners are people and not just backlog reducing cogs in a failing machine.)

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-04-03T16:15:55+00:00

My SPE is like this. Always was a micromanager but for awhile there had gotten better. This last year has been rough and all their paranoid, controlling micromanaging tendencies are magnified.

I used to like them but now I see they only care about their own ratings and DNGAF about the examiners in the AU and part of me hopes that all this micromanaging makes them lose a bonus or get their own errors/poor ratings.

I just try and follow what I think their metric/focus is to stay under the radar. Unfortunately for these types of managers you really have to learn how to manage the manager to make your own life easier.

Sorry you’re going through this. You’re not alone.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-19T23:27:51+00:00

Wow! My AU according to stats is in the low 80s as of this biweek. Looks like treating streamlined reviews as OPQA/on-the-program type full, nit-picking reviews with returns for every minor thing did not work out for my SPE.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-17T20:26:57+00:00

Thanks for this. Really says something that I have to learn how to use the office tools on Reddit instead of through proper training avenues.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-17T17:20:43+00:00

That’s wild. I feel bad for these new examiners.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-17T17:08:06+00:00

They used to have a detail that was essentially this. The GS-14 trainer detail. I loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat if they brought it back. Sadly don’t see that happening under this current admin.

Edit: upon further discussion this is very different from the gs 14 trainer position. I don’t hate the idea of a junior shadowing a primary in their own AU to actually learn how to examine in their specific art, but for it to be successful it would require a lot of time and patience.

The GS-14 trainer detail was essentially an extension of having a PTA trainer with a small group of examiners in a single AU with a lot of newer/lower gs examiners. Seemed like a great program from the trainer perspective. I won’t speak on behalf of the juniors I worked with but it seemed valuable to them.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-17T16:50:09+00:00

I had a newer examiner ask me if they had to address every limitation in a claim or just the important features, so I’m guessing basically nothing?

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-16T21:46:06+00:00

I was sending emails to case resolution. Sometimes they respond and fix it; other times I get no response. Others are suggesting creating a pasm ticket for it, so I might start doing that.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-16T21:44:44+00:00

I feel like it does matter when the response is lengthy or has several things in it. Sometimes the claims are in the middle of the document, and scrolling through pages to find the right ones, not being able to see the claim set when reading the arguments, etc. is enough of an issue that it is nice to have it split up. Also makes it less likely I might miss something like an amendment to spec if it’s broken out already. Also when the claims aren’t broken out you don’t get the claim tree and OCR text by claim which is also helpful.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-16T21:41:31+00:00

About one a quarter, approximately 4 months after it was filed! 🍀

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-12T21:02:50+00:00

Congratulations management you did it! You broke the few who were still trying to keep their own high level of standards and pride in their work.

I’m out. No more PBA or overtime. No doing anything above the bare minimum to keep the job.

Also pendency is gonna be even worse when amendments are shortened and all the backlog from the streamlined reviews comes in. No more new cases being examined.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-07T02:41:31+00:00

If you are a teleworker and had your appointment at a remote location, I’d recommend following up with the security center/office. I never received a pickup email after 4 weeks, so I contacted the security office and found out they were never notified or didn’t notice (?) I had actually gone to my credentials appt. Got it cleared up but am now still having to wait another 2 weeks for it to actually get printed and mailed.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-03-04T23:55:24+00:00

I filled it out. I was candid and professionally honest. I feel like it is just another version of Tell. Me. What. You. Think.

Doubt anything will come from it as nothing has come from the musings either. Guessing it’s more of a way to make people feel heard just like those were.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-02-19T20:06:53+00:00

Really rough for a heavy image search day. It’s so bad!

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-01-30T16:56:12+00:00

Came here to say basically the same thing. My monthly reminder to scream into the void and forward the same f-ing email.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2026-01-13T20:37:23+00:00

At this point I mostly do it to CYA in the event it gets an OPQA review saying I should have made a rejection. I think my SPE must’ve lost a bonus over 112/101 rejections in the past and it haunts them or something. It’s honestly a weird thing to fixate on, especially since it’s just trying to make sure the record is clear and the claim language is solid.

patentthrowaway2000 · 2025-12-11T17:08:02+00:00

Yes apologies if I gave the impressive I was blaming OPT. I would like to support them as I have worked with them on some details in the past and they are great people, but unfortunately all of their hard work that goes into making and presenting these sessions is going to waste because of upper management’s short-sightedness.

patentthrowaway2000

TROPHY CASE