AppColl interfaces with many public and private databases to retrieve information for patents and trademarks. At times, one or more of these database may become unreachable or have significant delays. With the PTO's shift from digital certificates to MyUSPTO sponsorships, Patent Center has had significant delays and times where the system isn't available at all. 

To provide as much transparency as possible, we have added status indicators to the bottom of each page in AppColl for Patent Center, EPO (i.e., EspaceNet), TSDR and Google Patents. Each database's color can be green, yellow or red.

Green - no connectivity or noticeable performance issues exist. 
Yellow (EPO, TSDR or Google Patents) - these databases are taking longer than 4 seconds to return information from database queries over the past 7 minutes.
Yellow (Patent Center) - Patent Center is occasionally timing out and not providing any information from requests AppColl has made for the past 10 minutes.
Red (EPO, TSDR or Google Patents) - these databases are taking longer than 20 seconds to return information from database queries over the past 7 minutes.
Red (Patent Center) - Patent Center is consistently timing out and not providing any information from requests AppColl has made for the past 10 minutes. 

With respect to Patent Center, if we send a request for information (XML file or e-Office Action document) and Patent Center does not return any information, we will try again in a few minutes. We will continue trying every few minutes until we receive the information. Please Note: Patent Center has had connection issues lasting several hours. As such, the time from when an EOffice Action email is sent from the PTO till the time the document (provided you subscribe to PM Plus) is available in your account is completely dependent on the Patent Center connectivity status. This applies to the Update Matter button available for your matters as well.