United States Patent and Trademark Office OG Notices: 31 December 2002

                 Status of Office of Public Records Services

   The Office of Public Records (OPR) processes and fills orders
for both certified and uncertified copies of Patent and Trademark
Office documents and records assignments and other documents related to
title. This is an update of actual processing times during the month of
November 2002:

Document Services                      Goal                          Actual
                                                                 Processing
                                                                       Time

Certified Documents

Patent Applications-As-Filed,
   Expedited                         7 days                         4 days
Patent Applications-As-Filed,
   Regular                          17 days                         5 days
Patent Related File Wrappers        25 days                        34 days*
Patent Copies                       10 days                         4 days
Patent Assignments                  10 days                         4 days
Trademark Applications-As-Filed,
   Expedited                         7 days                         3 days
Trademark Applications-As-Filed,
   Regular                          17 days                         4 days
Trademark Related File Wrappers     25 days                        25 days*
Trademark Assignments               10 days                         3 days
Trademark Registrations,
   Expedited                         5 days                         3 days
Trademark Registrations,
   Regular                          14 days                         4 days

Uncertified Documents

Expedited Patent Copies              1 day                          1 day
Regular Patent Copies                5 days                         3 days
Plant Patents                        5 days                         5 days
Patent Assignments                  10 days                         3 days
Patent Related File Wrappers        25 days                        20 days*
Expedited Trademark Copies           1 day                          1 day
Regular Trademark Copies             5 days                         2 days
Trademark Assignments               10 days                         3 days
Trademark Related File Wrappers     25 days                        26 days*

*Includes turnaround times for files on Official Search and
File Reconstruction.

During the month of November 2002, a total of 14,424 public
orders (21,937 copies) were filled and closed, or 3,227 orders more
(1,766 copies less) than the FY-03 planning number of 11,197 orders
(23,703 copies) to be closed for this month.

Please do not submit "follow-up" or duplicate copies of
orders. Customers should use the above actual processing
time for each product as a guide as to when they can expect their
orders to be completed. In cases where an urgent deadline
is approaching, contact OPR Customer Service at (703) 308-9726 or 1
(800) 972-6382 for assistance with a particular order.

Customers are encouraged to fax orders for copies directly to the
Document Services Division at (703) 308-9759 and to pay by PTO Deposit
Account, MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover. Copy orders
also may be placed through the Internet by accessing the PTO home page
at www.uspto.gov and selecting the "Order Copies"
option. Information on the status of pending orders may be obtained by
calling (703) 308-9726 or 1 (800) 972-6382 (outside the Washington, DC
Metro area), or via E-mail: dsd@uspto.gov.

ASSIGNMENT SERVICES

The Assignment Services Division is currently mailing recordation
notices for paper documents received in the Office of Public Records on
September 13, 2002. The cycle time to process, record, and mail notices
for paper documents is 75 calendar days.

Recordation notices for assignment documents transmitted
electronically to the Assignment Services Division are current through
receipts for November 30, 2002. The cycle time to process, record, and
return notices for electronic documents is 1 calendar day.

December 4, 2002                                     PATRICK ROWE, Director
                                                   Office of Public Records