You may wish to have form letters or task notifications generated as the result of receiving an e-Office action. This is normally done by setting up Files and Notifications in the Task Type details page.
Normally files/form letters or notifications would be populated and created when the task is initially generated. However, for tasks triggered by e-Office actions this can cause problems if the form letters or notifications use information that may change as the result of downloading information related to the e-Office action from the USPTO Patent Center.
Bibliographic information and documents are downloaded AFTER the e-Office action is received and the task is generated. For example, you may wish to include a matter publication date in a form letter or notification that is attached to a task when you receive a notice of publication. However, the publication date is updated when the XML data file is eventually downloaded from Patent Center some time after the task is generated. Generating the form letter when the task is created will not include the date because the XML file will not have been downloaded.
To solve this issue, the are two options, one for attached files and one for notifications that must be set to delay their creation until all files have been downloaded and processed.
When using these “defer” options with e-Office actions, files will be added to tasks and notifications sent only after ALL documents associated with the e-Office action have been downloaded and processed, including XML files and office action documents. Also, if you have enabled automatic USPTO 892 form processing, nothing will happen until ALL references in the 892 form have been downloaded.
For notifications, be sure to select the “When a file is attached” checkbox.
When attaching files to tasks, be sure to select the “Create form and add to task only after ALL information…” checkbox. Note that if you select this option, and the task is not triggered from an e-Office action, the file WILL NEVER be attached to the task.
