Docket and deadlines

Computed deadlines

From the filings PatentFlow computes the priority year, PCT national (30 months) and regional phase (31 months), EP validation and unitary effect, the DPMA inventor designation (15 months), office action responses, renewals of DPMA, EPO, utility models and USPTO, and the end of the opposition period. Proceedings and employee inventions add their own deadlines.

The docket

A computed deadline becomes binding when someone enters it in the docket. The entry gets a pre-deadline (by default 14 days before, adjustable), a responsible person and the four-eyes check: another person confirms dates and responsibility, and whoever last changed a date may not check it. Deadlines are completed with a note or a file as proof, or cancelled with a reason; every change is kept in the history.

When the computation later gives another date - for example after a corrected filing date - the entry shows it and the new date is taken over only on request.

Reminders and calendar

The responsible person gets mails at the pre-deadline and 7, 3, 1 and 0 days before the deadline; a deadline that passed without completion is also reported to the owner of the file. Each user can subscribe to their deadlines - or all they may see - as a calendar; the events only show the reference number and the kind of deadline.