Filling-out USPTO PDF forms with bibliographic/attorney data [Lite+Shells and Pro+Shells versions]


This feature allows you  fill-out USPTO forms.  Specifically, ClaimMaster can populate various placeholder fields in the USPTO's PDF forms with the information downloaded from the USPTO and attorney/firm information stored by ClaimMaster.


Getting Started

  • In Word 2007 or later - from the ClaimMaster Ribbon, click on the USPTO Office Actions, Shells, and Forms menu, then select Populate a USPTO form with application/attorney info:


  • In Word 2003 or earlier - from the ClaimMaster toolbar, click on the USPTO Office Actions, Shells, and Forms menu, then select Populate a USPTO form with application/attorney info:


Feature Options

Selecting the above feature will show this window, which has the following options available: 



    1. Enter the application or patent number in this field.  You can also select a value from all of the entries loaded in the PAIR cache using a pull-down menu.
    2. Press this button to download bibliographic information for the specified application number (item #1) from either Patent Center, PEDs, or Private PAIR.   The choice of Patent Center, PEDs, or Private PAIR is based on your selection for item #4.  To switch between Patent Center, PEDs, or Private PAIR, switch to "Biblio Source Settings" tab and select the source of information. 
    3. If this checkbox is selected, ClaimMaster will proceed to download the bibliographic data directly from Patent Center, PEDs, or Private PAIR rather than loading it from PAIR cache.  The newly downloaded bibliographic data for this application will then be stored in PAIR cache.  If you switch to the Biblio Source and Cache Settings tab here, you'll have access to the following options:



    1. Specify whether to use Patent Center, PEDs, or Private Pair for downloading the bibliographic data. Note: Private PAIR access is available only in Pro+Shells and Lite+Shells versions.
    2. If Private PAIR is used, you can specify various Private PAIR settings here, including log-in credentials and PAIR cache settings.
    3. Various bibliographic replacement fields in this table will be filled in when "Update from PAIR" button (item #2) is clicked.  If you have specified any additional replacement fields, those will be listed as well.  The values in these fields will be used to replace placeholders in the response template.  Unselect the fields you do not want to replace in the document and they will be simply removed from the final version. In addition to any custom fields you specify, the following replacement fields are available and will be replaced in the template, when a full document is generated:
    1. This tab shows the download log for downloading the bibliographic data from PAIR.  Any download issues, such as time-outs or unavailability of specific download information, will be specified in the log.
    2. Click this button to edit the information or the tag for the currently selected replacement field.
    3. Click this button to select/unselect all replacement fields.
    4. Click this button to configure/edit custom replacement fields.
    5. Here you can specify whether to capitalize inventor/examiner/applicant names and title in the replacement fields. You can choose to keep the original capitalization, initialize first letters in each word, or capitalize all words.
    6. Here you can specify the directory where you'd like to store the filled-out forms.
    7. If this checkbox is selected, ClaimMaster will place all filled-out documents in a zip file in the specified save directory.
    8. Use this field to specify whether to use pre-AIA USPTO forms or after-AIA forms.  The value of this field will be set by default after you download application information from PAIR (see item 6), although you can override it.
    9. This pull-down menu allows you to filter forms by their type, as reflected on the USPTO's website.
    10. You can perform a text search for specific forms by typing in the search keyword here and clicking "Filter."  Only forms having the keyword in their "Code" or "Description" fields will be shown.  To clear any filtering, press "Clear".
    11. This table shows all available USPTO forms (filtered by type or keywords).  Click on a particular row in the table to select the form for further processing.  You can select multiple forms either by dragging your mouse across the selection or using Ctlr + mouse click to select multiple forms simultaneously.  

Note: if you select multiple forms, a valid Save directory (item 11) is required and all selected forms will be saved there once they are filled out.

    1. Click on this button to edit the fields in the form (requires Adobe Acrobat installed; this button is not visible otherwise).  Once the form comes up, edit any fields in the form, such by adding any custom replacement fields and then save the form (Ctrl +S).  Form browser (item 17) will then display the form with the updated replacement fields.  Alternatively, you can right-click on each row to bring up the right-click menu that will let you edit the selected document.
    2. Press this button to re-download all PDF forms from the USPTO, overwriting the existing forms.
    3. Reserved.
    4. Click on this button to generate a USPTO form based on the selected form, where each of the replacement fields is replaced with information from item 4.  Any unselected replacement fields or items without values will be removed from the final PDF form.