…waiting for the Israel PTO to issue an application number for a PCT national phase entry I effected this morning.
In the USA, I get the application number IMMEDIATELY upon filing. Even if I don’t pay fees.
In ePCT, I get the application number IMMEDIATELY upon filing . Even if I don’t pay fees.
In the UK, where I have filed a few time, I get the application number IMMEDIATELY upon filing . Even if I don’t pay fees.
In Israel, we MUST pay fees, but are not given an application number immediately. No, we have to wait. If we’re lucky, the wait is a few minutes, but sometimes it’s an hour. Or two hours. Or 24 hours. And sometimes even more, as I’ve discussed previously.
This has been a problem ever since electronic patent filing was introduced in Israel nearly 11 years ago. Since the problem has never been fixed, despite being drawn to the attention of the powers-that-be, it seems the Israel PTO thinks that failing to timely issue patent application numbers is acceptable. Which makes me wonder, WHY does the ILPTO think this is acceptable?
Update: as I was writing this post, I finally got the application number, six-and-a-half hours after filing.
I suspect that if an Omani terrorist attempted to hack the ILPTO’s IT systems in order to impose this kind of delay from without, the problem would be resolved quickly.
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