This article explains how to configure notifications from the USPTO Patent Center e-Office Action program in Equinox.

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The USPTO Patent Center e-Office Action program offers email notifications when new Office communications become available. This lets enrolled users receive email notifications when new USPTO communications are available.

Equinox is set up to receive these email notifications, and can trigger the corresponding pre-sets and deadlines in your system.

You can find the PTO Notifications functionality in the left sidebar when on the dashboard.

Note: You must be enrolled with the USPTO Patent Center e-Office Action program to use this functionality.

Use the PTO Notifications functionality

To use the PTO Notifications functionality in Equinox:

  1. Log into the Patent Center on the USPTO, and go to the 'Edit Customer Number' page

  2. In the Outgoing Correspondence section of the page, select 'Receive Correspondence Notification via email, and enter your dedicated Equinox email address for receiving correspondence notifications. You can find the email address you need to use in System > System Preferences > PTO Integrations. 

    Note: You must already be using the email to Equinox functionality (e.g. @docs.workanyware.co.uk) for this to work. If you aren't using email to Equinox, please email support@equinox-ipms.com to enable this. 

  3. Your USPTO Patent Center notifications will then be sent directly to Equinox. When Equinox receives your notification, they'll appear in the new PTO Notifications section.

  4. When it receives your notification, Equinox extracts the following information:

    • Document code

    • Mailroom date 

    • Application number

  5. Equinox will use the above information to:

    • Link the notification to the corresponding case in your system

    • Suggest pre-sets and deadlines that should be triggered

To configure pre-set rules to link to USPTO documents:

  1. Go to System > PTO Notification Pre-set Links


  2. Click Create Link to configure a new rule


  3. Enter your PTO link Details on the next page. The details you should include are:

    Field NameField Description
    PTOSelect USPTO from the dropdown menu
    PTO ReferenceThe document code from the PTO. This is the code under 'Document' in your email notification
    Correspondence NameThe name of the correspondence that the code relates to - e.g., Final Office Action, this is just for internal use
    Pre-set GroupThe pre-set that will be triggered for this document code (PTO Reference)

    Note: Concatenation settings don't apply to USPTO links, so please ignore this field  


  4. When you've entered all the required information, click the Create button 

  5. You'll be taken back to the All PTO Links page. You'll see your newly-created link listed on the page. Equinox will display a notice saying 'Created New Link' on the bottom right of the screen.

     

To edit an existing pre-set link in your system:

  1. Go to System > PTO Notification Pre-set Links

  2. Click the Edit button to the right of the link you want to update

  3. Make the required changes

  4. Click the Update button

  5. You'll be taken back to the All PTO Links page. You can see that your changes have been made. 

To delete a pre-set link already in your system.

  1. Go to System > PTO Notification Pre-set Links

  2. Click Delete next to the pre-set link you want to delete

  3. Equinox will delete the link and display a notification in the bottom right corner saying 'Deleted Link'

Set a default pre-set for when there is no specific match to a document/pre-set 

To set a default pre-set for when there is no specific pre-set link found for the document code:

  1. Go to System > System Preferences > PTO Integrations

  2. Select your default pre-set in the USPTO Notification Default Preset field

  3. Click the Update button to apply the change.