“We use to find some funny stuff, like patent files up above ceiling tiles because the examiners didn’t feel like dealing with that file so if it was ‘lost’ it would take a while to put it back together and would stall (and probably cost the owner of the file a lot of money).”

Gov’t Contractor

We always knew stuff like that was happening.  Patent application files would  get lost – paper filings through the mail would often fail to get recorded.  That causes complete chaos and patent attorneys freak out. During the paper filing days, it was especially troublesome. I envisioned my paper hitting the mailroom late on a Friday afternoon, and some mail clerk  throwing the office action in the garbage because they didn’t want to deal with it.

When we (patent attorneys) file, we have these examples in the back of our heads, and make efforts to recover from a “lost” file or other office communication.

I knew it!