I Would Be Frustrated, But

I just had a Steven's Cheesesteak and I don't have room for any emotion besides satiety.

Instead of frustration, I'm amused. My admin and I just spent roughly 2 days working on replacement drawings for a patent application. The amendment, forms, and finals from the draftsman were finally ready to go out the door today. Before I signed, I figured I'd check the last correspondence from the PTO, just to make sure that our on-line docketing system wasn't lying to me.

Good thing I did. Turns out the firm from which my firm got this file let the final office action deadline go without responding. This file is DEAD. Somehow, it never was deactivated in our docketing, so when some of its brother and sister patents needed new drawings, we threw it in the pile as well.

The moral of the story? Always double check. The partner thought I was pretty smart for catching this error--he was also very sorry for wasting my time, mumbling, "I don't know why it hasn't been deactivated, give it to Linda, don't trouble yourself with it anymore, she'll file the deactivation form."

The best part for me? Clearly, the long outdoor lunch at Steven's with MB and Chuck was meant to be. Had I rushed back, I'd only have been doing work on a file that wasn't billable anyways.