Generating a shell Office Action response [Lite+Shells and Pro+Shells versions] 


This feature allows you to generate Office Action responses based on the pre-configured shell templates.  ClaimMaster can populate various placeholder fields in the document with the information downloaded from the USPTO/EPO, claims from the previous Office Action response, or rejections identified in the Office Action.


Getting Started

  • In Word 2007 or later - from the ClaimMaster Ribbon, click on the USPTO Office Actions, Shells, and Forms menu, then select Create a shell Word document (e.g., OA response) or email:


  • In Word 2003 or earlier - from the ClaimMaster toolbar, click on the USPTO Office Actions, Shells, and Forms menu, then select Create a shell Word document (e.g., OA response) or email:


Feature Options

Selecting the above feature will show the the 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. If this window is invoked from the Office Action Browser, this field may be automatically populated if a valid application number is detected in the Office Action. 
    2. Press this button to download bibliographic information for the specified application number (item #1) from Patent Center, PEDs, or Private PAIR.   The choice of the source is based on your selection for item #4.  To switch between biblio sources, switch to the "Biblio Settings" tab and select either Private PAIR, Patent Center, or PEDs as 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 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.  
    2. If Private PAIR is used, you can specify various Private PAIR settings here, including log-in credentials and PAIR cache settings.
    3. Various 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.  For a full list of available replacement fields, go here.
    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. Use this field to specify the date of the Office Action. It may not be identified by default for Office Actions in DOCX format, which are missing the front summary page.
    7. Use this field to specify the location of the document with the latest claim set you want to insert into the Office Action response.
    8. If this checkbox is select, once the claims are inserted into the new document, ClaimMaster will attempt to remove any double spaces created when the previous amendments are accepted in the new shell.
    9. If this checkbox is selected,  ClaimMaster will update the status indicators in the claims inserted in the Office Action response, such as from (Currently Amended) to (Previously Presented), etc.  In addition, amendments in the claims will be accepted as well. The placeholder for this item in the templates is [CLAIMS]
    10. When the Office Action context is present in the Shell tool, you'll see the Office Action file name in the "Loaded OA rejections for : XXX " section above. In this case, any generated shells will be filled out with the information extracted from this Office Action (i.e., rejections, prior art, etc.)  To stop this, click this button to reset the currently loaded Office Action, releasing all state associated with it.
    11. Here you can specify the Save directory where you'd like to store the filled-out shells and any associated documents
    12. If this checkbox is selected, ClaimMaster will place all filled-out documents in a zip file in the specified save directory.
    13. This table shows a list of all available shells.  Click on a particular row in the table to select the shell for further processing.  You can select multiple shells either by dragging your mouse across the selection or using Ctlr + mouse click to select multiple forms simultaneously.  

Note: if you select multiple shells/documents to fill with bibliographic data, a valid Save directory (item 16) is required and all generated documents will be saved there once they are filled out.

    1. Click this button to edit the configuration for the existing Word shell
    2. Click this button to delete the configuration for the existing Word shell 
    3. Click this button to add a new Word shell configuration
    4. This button launches a Shell Wizard that helps you quickly create and load new shell into ClaimMaster from your existing Office Action responses
    5. These fields allow you to specify additional items to include with the generated shells to create an Office Action "package".  They can include: (1) an annotated and OCRed Office Action, (2) cited prior art, and (3) a document with a clean claim set.

Note: if you select any of these documents, a valid Save directory (item 16) is required and all generated documents will be saved there.

    1. Reserved.
    2. Click this button to fill-in the selected shell template(s) with information.  Any placeholder fields in the Word or email shell(s) will be replaced with bibliographic data, claims, rejections, etc., if available.  Any automatic fields in the templates (e.g., page #s of different sections) will be updated at the end of the document creation.