Closing of the Patent and Trademark Office
                       on Tuesday January 25, 2000, and
                          Wednesday, January 26, 2000

   In view of the official closing of Federal Government offices in the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including the Patent and Trademark
Office, on Tuesday, January 25, 2000, and Wednesday, January 26, 2000,
the Patent and Trademark Office will consider each of those days, a
"Federal holiday within the District of Columbia" under 35 U.S.C.    21
and 37 C.F.R.      1.6, 1.7 and 1.9. Any action or fee due on those days
will be considered as timely for the purposes of, e.g., 35 U.S.C. 119,
120, 133 and 151, if the action is taken, or the fee paid, on the next
succeeding business day on which the Patent and Trademark Office was
open, that is, Thursday, January 27, 2000.

   37 C.F.R.      1.6(a)(2) and (4) provide that correspondence deposited
as Express Mail in accordance with 37 C.F.R.    1.10, and
trademark-related correspondence transmitted electronically, will be
considered filed on the date of deposit with the United States Postal
Service, or the date the PTO receives the electronic transmission,
respectively. Thus, any paper or fee properly deposited as Express Mail
on January 25, 2000, or January 26, 2000, in accordance with 37 C.F.R.
 1.10 (that is, shown by a "date-in" of January 25, 2000, or January 26,
2000, on the Express Mail mailing label), or trademark-related
correspondence transmitted electronically on either January 25, 2000, or
January 26, 2000, will be considered filed on its respective date of
deposit in Express Mail, or receipt of the electronic transmission.

January 27, 2000                                   CLARENCE C. CRAWFORD for
                                                          Q. TODD DICKINSON
                                        Assistant Secretary of Commerce and
                                     Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks