How are you tracking 37 CFR 1.97/1.98 IDS windows across continuations now that Patent Center has fully replaced PAIR? I’m mapping Office Action mail dates to the three‑month periods and tagging SB/08a submissions, but I’d like to compare general workflows — specific matters should be directed to a qualified attorney.
I keep a family-level sheet that pulls each OA ‘Mailing Date’ from Patent Center’s Transaction History, auto‑calculates the 3‑month 37 CFR 1.97 windows, and queues one SB/08 per family per window to avoid dupes. Backstop is a hard stop at issue‑fee payment plus a post‑allowance 1.97(e) sweep keyed off e‑Office Action emails; for edge cases I sanity‑check against MPEP 609 (609-Information Disclosure Statement) and loop in counsel. It’s like color‑coding train lines so no one misses a stop.
And for continuations, I trigger a fresh 3‑month 1.97(b) window from the cont’s filing date and prebuild one SB/08a rolling up parent art on day one, then a second tickler off the first OA “Mailing Date” for late refs under 1.97(c)/(d). Patent Center’s e‑Office Action + Transaction History give me the dates; when it’s fuzzy I sanity‑check MPEP 609 at 609-Information Disclosure Statement and route specific matters to counsel.
I cut down mispacks and refunds by adding a one-page special-order checklist at the counter — cut, weight, trim, wrap — and standard file names for each ticket; “measure twice, slice once.” If paper feels clunky, a simple Google Form feeding a shared sheet works too, but it sticks best when one person per shift owns it.
I start the 90‑day timers off Transaction History doc codes — ‘CTNF’, ‘CTFR’, ‘NOA’ — treating them like traffic lights, and I pull the dates via PEDS so continuations inherit the same watchers across the family (https://ped.uspto.gov/peds/). That avoids false resets from corrected postings; if a ‘Corrected’ OA appears without a new mail date, the timer doesn’t move, and anything matter‑specific goes to counsel. Do you also spin up a timer from foreign office actions via Global Dossier, @lgrace87?
I anchor the windows off the ‘Mail Room Date’ on each OA PDF, feed that into a shared sheet that auto-calcs the 1.97(b) periods, and for continuations I paste a carryover art list on day one with a 10‑day hard stop — belt-and-suspenders. I still spot‑check Patent Center weekly in case of remails; for specific cases, loop in counsel. Do you trigger off the e‑Office Action email or the PDF stamp?