Public User's Meeting

Public Records Division (PRD)/Public Search Services Division (PSSD)
Public User's Meeting
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Remsen Building Conference Center

The Public User's Meeting was held at 2:00 p.m. in the 1st floor conference room 1D04/1D14 of the Remsen Building at 400 Dulany Street on the USPTO campus in Alexandria, Virginia. Martha Sneed, Manager of PSSD, chaired the meeting. There were 2 member(s) of the public in attendance.

Announcements

The CIO has expressed an interest in attending the Public User's Meetings on a quarterly basis.


Public Search Facility (PSF)

Service Change: A final decision on PSF hours of operation has been reached. CIO John Owens informed public users at a special meeting held on March 4 in the Global IP Academy that regular hours of operation remain Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 8:00 pm, but with the last 2 hours (6:00 pm-8:00 pm) having limited services and no staff present. There will be security present at those times however. The change will take effect on March 30, 2010 and be formally announced in an OG notice on March 23, 2010.

The File Information Unit (FIU) hours will be changed to 7:00 am - 6:00 pm Monday - Friday, also on March 30, 2010.

Visitors' daily badges will not be issued by Security Office located at the Public Search Facility guard station after 6:00 pm since there will be no PSF staff available to render assistance.

If there is a problem with UPWS during the later hours of operation when no staff is present the system has the capability of generating problem reports automatically.

PSF managers and staff are developing a helpful hints checklist to remind customers to be prepared for limited service after 6 pm. Feedback forms will also be provided so customers can leave information on any problems occurring after 6pm so that staff can work on them prior to opening the following business day.

User Comment: The examiners probably have recourse for computer/system problems after 6:00pm so hopefully users in the PSF can also have access to the same during that time. Answer: UPWS is a separate system not used by examiners. There will be no technical assistance after 6:00pm. The regular OCIO helpdesk does not have access to the UPWS database system or servers.

Patent load malfunction: Searches performed between 8:00am and 10:00am Tuesday March 16, 2010 may have to be redone because the weekly upload of granted patents was delayed and did not get completed until 10:00 a.m. Users should check any searches done on that day during those hours. Also Wednesday of last week, March 10, 2010 EAST was experiencing problems; as well as on Thursday following. These problems have been resolved.


Public Records Division

There is nothing to report.

The Public User's Meeting was adjourned at 2:34pm. Next meeting is April 21, 2010 at 2:00pm in the Remsen conference center, room 1D04/1D14.