Generating shell OA responses 

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

  • From the ClaimMaster Ribbon, click on the USPTO Office Actions, Shells, and Forms menu, then select Identify rejections/prior art in the Office Action and switch to the Generate an OA Response (OAR) shell tab:



Feature Options

The following options allow you to specify auto-complete preferences in the Settings window:


 


    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 Patent Center, PEDS, or Private PAIR, as specified in item # 9. 
    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 PAIR Source and Cache Settings tab here, you'll have access to the following options.
    4. Lists the date of the Office Action (used in filling out the shells and for computing various replacement fields).  
    5. You can have ClaimMaster download the latest claims from either Patent Center or Private PAIR (if they are available there).
    6. Use this field to specify the location of the document with the latest claim set you want to insert into the Office Action response.  
    7. 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]
    8. Select a previously defined group of documents/shells to generate.
    9. Here you can select multiple documents to define a group, enter group name and then click on "Save" to store the group for future use.  Alternatively, clicking on the "Delete" button will remove the given group.
    10. 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 6) is required and all generated documents will be saved there once they are filled out.

    1. Configures shell settings.
    2. 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.  You can also select to zip all generated documents together.

Note: if you select any of these documents, a valid Save location (item 6) is required and all generated documents will be saved there.

    1. Specifies a save location for the generated documents.
    2. Specifies whether all the generated documents will be placed inside a separate zip file.
    3. 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.
    4. Shows the textual summary of the Office Action, as summarized by ClaimMaster. Here, you can customize how the US and foreign prior art references are cited in the Office Action summary, as well as how the rejections/objects/allowances are written out.
    5. Click this button to specify OA summary settings. 
    6. Various bibliographic replacement fields in this table will be filled in when "lookup biblio data" button (item #2) is clicked. These fields will be used to fill-out the OA shells.
    7. 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.
    8. Use these buttons to edit, delete, or add new fields to the table above.
    9. Click this button to configure/edit custom replacement fields.
    10. Press this button to show/hide the detailed OAR insertion data section.