Back in the “ReThink(IP)” days, we had a frequent meme called “Things we hate about uspto.gov.” Sadly, most of those “things” are still issues.
I thought it might be fun to revisit that list (and expand on it) via a series of posts here that I will tag with “uspto” and “feedback”. Perhaps the new, friendlier USPTO will fix some of them. We can only hope.
—————-
Issue: TESS times out on a user if the user stops using it for a very short period of time. While that, itself, is quite annoying (I can’t think of any other website I use that tells me that my session has “timed out”), the REAL annoying part is that the time out page doesn’t return you to the TESS search page. Instead, it dumps you back to the USPTO home page, requiring the user to navigate back to the TESS search page.
Solution: Return the user to the TESS landing page so they can continue searching.
Related posts:
Another comment on TESS: Link “enter” to the submit button for the search. I hate entering a search phrase, hitting the enter button, seeing a new line appear in the text box, then deleting the new line and having to mouse over to actually hit the “Submit Query” button.
On the general side: I’ve said it before – perhaps in an email to you – the USPTO website needs a complete overhaul. There is just too much information on every page to be readable even for patent attorneys. If the website is to better serve the public, information has to be divvied and displayed better. I will, however, give praise to the USPTOflowchart. While it still suffers from too much density, it does provide a more-or-less understandable description of the patent process for clients.
Ok, I have another one. Maybe you’ve thought of it before. The USPTO home page has three columns – Patents, TMs, and “IP & Policy.” Why not order the items in the patent and trademark columns in the same way? “Search” is bullet #2 under both columns, but “File online” is bullet 4 in patents and bullet 3 in TM. “Check status” is also under two different bullets. Same with “View fee schedule,” “Assignment,” etc. A little consistency in the numbering would add a lot of value, I think.