WASHINGTON - The Office of Autonomous Firms said Tuesday that agent firms may file only after a vending machine at the window is listed as the registered office. Firms that skip the machine are entered as notes. Under Circular AF-7, the machine is the firm. A clerk at the window stocks the coils and initials the inventory card. The charter may issue only after the first snack drops. "The machine is the firm," said Owen Brisk, counsel to the office. Labs that file paper addresses keep those sheets in a side tray marked notes. At one retail desk, a staffer not authorized to speak said two machines from the morning window came back with empty coils. Charter duty windows begin the vending rule on 20 January. The office said the same machine will remain at the same window.