DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No. 010126025-1025-01]
RIN 0651-AB34
Notice of Request for Comments on
Development of a Plan To Remove the
Patent and Trademark Classified Paper Files
From the Public Search Facilities
AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of request for public comments.
SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) requests public comment on issues associated with the
development of a plan to remove the patent and trademark classified
paper files from the USPTO's public search libraries and replace them
with electronic records. These public search facilities are currently
located in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. Interested members of the
public are invited to present comments on the appropriate scope for and
contents of this plan, including the topics outlined in the
supplementary information section of this notice.
DATES: Comments will be accepted by the USPTO until September 26, 2001.
ADDRESSES: Those interested in presenting written
comments on the topics presented in the supplementary information, or
any related topics, may mail their comments to the Under Secretary of
Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States
Patent and Trademark Office, Washington, D.C. 20231, marked to the
attention of Ronald Hack, Acting Chief Information Officer, or send
them by facsimile transmission to (703) 308-7792.
Parties are encouraged to provide their comments in machine-readable
format and send them over the Internet as electronic mail messages to
file-removal@uspto.gov. Machine-readable submissions should
be provided as unformatted text (e.g., ASCII or plain text),
or as formatted text in one of the following file formats: Microsoft
Word (Macintosh, DOS or Windows versions) or WordPerfect (Macintosh,
DOS or Windows versions). Machine-readable submissions may be provided
on a 3 1/2-inch floppy disk formatted for use in either a Macintosh or
MSDOS-based computer, mailed to the Under Secretary of Commerce for
Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and
Trademark Office, Washington, DC 20231, marked to the attention of
Ronald Hack, Acting Chief Information Officer.
All comments should include the following information:
. Name and affiliation of the individual responding;
. An indication of whether comments offered represent views of the
respondent's organization or are the respondent's personal views; and
. If applicable, information on the respondent's organization,
including the type of organization (e.g., business, trade group,
university, non-profit organization).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
. Ronald Hack by telephone at (703) 305-9095, by facsimile at
(703) 308-7792, by electronic mail at ronald.hack@uspto.gov;
. Martha Sneed by telephone at (703) 308-5558, by facsimile at
(703) 306-2654, by electronic mail at martha.sneed@uspto.gov;
or
. by mail addressed to the Under Secretary of Commerce for
Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and
Trademark Office, Washington, DC 20231, marked to the attention of
Ronald Hack, Acting Chief Information Officer.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The American Inventors Protection Act of 1999, Title IV,
Section 4804(d)(1) (the "Act"), amended Section 11(a) of title 35,
United States Code, to provide that the Under Secretary of Commerce for
Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO may, for public use,
maintain "paper, microform, or electronic" (emphasis
supplied) collections of patents and trademark registrations. The Act
further provides, in Section 4804(d)(2), that the Director of the USPTO
shall not:
cease to maintain, for use by the public, paper or
microform collections of United States patents, foreign patent
documents, and United States trademark registrations, except pursuant
to notice and opportunity for public comment and except that the
Director shall first submit a report to the Committees on the Judiciary
of the Senate and the House of Representatives detailing such plan,
including a description of the mechanisms in place to ensure the
integrity of such collections and the data contained therein, as well
as to ensure prompt public access to the most current available
information, and certifying that the implementation of such plan will
not negatively impact the public.
For a number of years, the USPTO has been engaged in a program
to automate access to patents and to trademark registrations. The
agency currently provides electronic access to patent and trademark
information in two ways. First, the agency provides search terminals
for public use in the three Patent and Trademark Public Search
Facilities that are currently housed in the South Tower, Crystal Plaza
3-4, and Crystal Mall 1 buildings at the agency's offices in Crystal
City, Arlington, Virginia. Second, the USPTO provides access to patent
and trademark information on its World Wide Web (Web) site.
Approximately 76 public search terminals provide access to patent and
trademark information by means of computer software programs that
facilitate the search process. Some of the electronic data available
through these terminals are:
. Public EAST & WEST Systems: the full text of over 2.5
million U.S. patents issued since January 1971; the full images of over
6.5 million U.S. patents issued since 1790 and over 14.5 million
foreign patents; English translations of 5.1 million Japanese patent
abstracts; English translations of 3.1 million European patent
abstracts; and full text and images of all U.S. patent applications
published since March 15, 2001; and
. X-Search System: text and image of over 2.7 million
trademark applications and registrations (including active, canceled,
expired, and abandoned).
During fiscal year 2000, the average number of unique public users who
logged on to the WEST search system each month was 472 and the average
number of search sessions initiated per month by these users was 7,173.
In addition to the terminals accessing the databases listed above, the
public is provided additional workstations in the public search
facilities for accessing the electronic search tools listed below:
. Patents ASSIST: Full Text of Patent Search Tools.
. Patents BIB: Selected Bibliographic Information from
U.S. Patents Issued 1969 to Present.
. Patents CLASS: Current Classifications of U.S. Patents
Issued 1790 to Present.
. USAPat: Facsimile Images of United States Patents.
. Trademarks REGISTERED: Bibliographic Information from
Registered U.S. Trademarks.
. USAMark: Facsimile Images of United States Trademark
Registrations.
On the USPTO Web site, the public can access considerable patent and
trademark information. This information includes:
. Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS): searchable
database including the full text and clipped images of all registered
trademarks.
. U.S. patents issued from 1790 through 1975 - searchable by patent
number and current U.S. patent classification; and
. U.S. patents issued from 1976 to the most recent issue
week - searchable by full-text fields that now include current U.S.
classification data.
. Full text and images of all U.S. patent applications published
since March 15, 2001.
In November 2000, the public accessed an average of 970,000 pages of
patent and trademark information (i.e., issued patents and
registered trademarks) each day through the USPTO's Web site. As a
result of significant investment in these public search tools, and the
significant use of them, the USPTO intends to submit a plan to the
107th Congress to eliminate the patent and trademark classified paper
collections from the Trademark Public Search Facility located in the
South Tower Building, 2900 Crystal Drive, and the Patent Public Search
Facility located in the Crystal Plaza 3-4 Building, 2021 South Clark
Place. Elimination of these paper files is consistent with the USPTO's
goals, strategic information technology plans, and the agency's
operational practices.
The USPTO has invested and continues to invest a substantial portion of
its fee income in the maintenance of patent and trademark electronic
databases and the development and enhancement of software search
vehicles. As a result, trademark examining attorneys rely solely on
electronic records for examining and approving marks for Federal
registration. In accordance with patent examiners' increasing reliance
on automated searching, management and the Patent Office Professional
Association, which represents patent examiners, have agreed to begin
phased elimination of paper copies of patents from examiner search
files later this fiscal year. It is anticipated that by the time the
agency completes its relocation and consolidation at the Carlyle campus
in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2004, a substantial portion of the patent
examiner paper search files will have been eliminated.
The USPTO's current planning approach to the dissemination of patent
and trademark information is to continue enhancing its electronic
databases that capture the content of patents and trademarks, and to
expand public access beyond its Crystal City location. The agency
intends to formalize a plan to eliminate the paper collections of
patents and trademark registrations and is providing the public with an
opportunity to comment on the appropriate scope and contents of the
plan that the USPTO is required to submit to the Committees on the
Judiciary of the Senate and House of Representatives.
II. Issues for Public Comment
Any interested member of the public is invited to provide
comments on any topic related to development of a plan to eliminate the
patent and trademark paper classified collections and replace them with
electronic records. Issues that the USPTO has identified for
consideration thus far, upon which the agency is particularly
interested in obtaining public comment, include the following:
A. Measures required to ensure the integrity of electronic records.
B. Comparable functionality for searching and retrieving information
from electronic records.
C. Re-classifications of the patent electronic file.
D. Paper Disposition.
An important corollary issue for public comment relates to the final
disposition of the paper collections. The USPTO intends to consider
expressions of interest from the public and private sector regarding
third-party interest in maintaining the paper collections. The USPTO
particularly seeks comment on the following paper disposition options.
Any transfer of Federal records would be made only with the written
authorization of the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA).
D.1 Offer the collections to the NARA or some other government agency
(Federal or state).
D.2 Transfer ownership of the collections to an educational or
not-for-profit entity that agrees to keep them current and to make them
available to the public (no exchange of money).
D.3 Offer the collections for sale.
D.4 If necessary for disposition, divide the collections and permit the
transfer/sale of different segments to different
organizations/businesses.
May 24, 2001 NICHOLAS P. GODICI
Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for
Intellectual Property and Acting Director of the
United States Patent and Trademark Office