The USPTO has various Notices alerting an applicant to such things as Allowance, Missing Parts, and apparently, Upside Down Documents.  Yes, you read that correctly.

Blogger Erik Sherman recently outed the USPTO’s archaic practices and equipment with an actual example that is both ironic and hilarious, if not also a bit pathetic.  A practioner submitted documents to be recorded with the USPTO via electronic fax, and received in response a form letter with the following content:

For quite some time, the phrase “computer-readable media” in software claims has been a buzzword Examiners have latched onto for 101 rejections.  Yesterday, the USPTO released a guidance memo that provides specific language suggested for overcoming or avoiding these rejections.  Interestingly, addition of this suggested language to overcome rejection will not be considered new matter, regardless of whether the language is in the original specification.  One wonders if the USPTO will release more of these “preferred language” memos in the future to save additional 101 amendment time.

Microsoft managed to land a patent grant for emotiflags this past week despite well-known prior usage.  The IP team member at Microsoft who received the Notice of Allowance sent a blast email including a  :)

Lotus notes users, however, responded to the news with a  :(

Although it sounds like a parody of the likes of Despair.com, this patent news is actually a real occurrence.  One can’t be sure what the USTPO was emoting at the time of allowance.

Read more here.