Contacts can be imported from a spreadsheet in the form of a CSV or XLSX file.  Click here for the spreadsheet which is to be used. Please note that the attached spreadsheet includes every possible contact field. Many of which are unnecessary. The only required fields are role and a (name or company).

There are handful of rules you will want to follow.
•    There is a finite set of contact roles including: Client, Client/Solo Inventor, Company, Consultant, Corporate Counsel, Docketing Manager, Employee, Foreign Associate, Inventor, Law Firm, Legal Assistant, Legal Representative, Manager, Of Counsel, Other, Outside Counsel, Paralegal, Party of Interest, Patent Agent, Patent Attorney, Patent Engineer or Principal.

•    If role = client you will want to put the name in the Company field. There is no need to populate the name field if this is a client. The name cannot be used in any way.

•    If role = Company, put the company name in the company field

•    If role is an individual you will to put the name in first, middle and last if you are able. If you cannot break these names out individually, you can put the entire name in the Name field and we will do our best to break them out into the individual first, middle and last names.THEN put the business organization he/she works for in the Client AND Company fields. Without this, the contact is not associated with an organization.

•    Use role of Client/Solo Inventor if the client is also the inventor. In this instance populate the First, Middle and Last fields. No company or client value is needed.

•    Use the ShortName field if your Client's and Client/ Solo Inventor's have a special code you refer to them as. For example: Amazon may be referred to as AMZ.

•    If contact is a person pick the closest role that fits the bill. Populate the Company field if you wish to associate them with an entity.

•    Columns for SmallEntity and USMilitary would use a Y if the answer is yes.

Here are the steps for the import.
1.    Open the CSV/XSLX file and decide which columns you want to include in your import. You only have to populate the columns you want to import. You can remove the unused columns or leave them untouched. Either is fine. Save the spreadsheet.
2.    Go to the Contacts module in AppColl.
3.    Click the "Import csv or xlsx" link in the upper right corner of the screen.
4.    From the popup select the file to be imported. Make sure "Add New Contacts" is checked.
5.    Then click the import button.
6.    Once the import is verified, you will be presented with a list of any errors or warning. Warning can be ignored. Errors will need to be fixed. We recommend fixing the errors directly in the spreadsheet and attempting to re-import following steps 3-5 above. Click the Cancel button.
7.    If there are no errors click the "Import All Rows" button.