Searching Patents and Trademarks

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE PUBLIC SEARCH FACILITY (PSF)

SEARCHING PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS

VOL. X No. 1, April 2009

Public User Meetings are held the third Wednesday of every month at 2 p.m. Meeting notices and minutes are available by linking to Products and Services from the USPTO home page at www.uspto.gov. Send topic suggestions for future newsletters to psf@uspto.gov.

• Search Facilities
• Operations
• News
• Personnel

CURRENT UPWS NEWS OF THE DAY

The electronic digital sign near the Search Facility Reference Desk provides you with “at-a-glance” updates on the status of UPWS system operations as well as search related information. Please take a moment to read the latest updates displayed on the sign screens.

PUBLIC SEARCH FACILITY EVENING SERVICES

The Public Search Facility will begin to offer research assistance during daytime hours only beginning Monday, April 13, 2009. Research Assistance will be offered between the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Self-service access to all information and all facility, equipment and technical support services will continue to be available during the full range of open hours, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., including the Cashier Window.

• Search Collections
• Digital
• Print
• Microfilm

PATENT STATISTICS

General calendar year patent statistics reports, prepared by the Patent Technology Monitoring Team (PTMT), are available on the USPTO Internet Web Site. Reports on the web site profile patent activity by year, geographic origin, technology, and patenting organization. Links to PTMT reports on the Internet are contained on the following USPTO Web Site page: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm. In addition, links to general web pages containing patent statistics of interest can be found at the following web page: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/other_sites.html.

USPTO PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT

The PSF has received a copy of the “USPTO Performance and Accountability Report for FY 2008”. This annual report contains many facts and figures for U.S. patents and trademarks. The report “provides a comprehensive summary of program and financial results and is structured to help the President, the Congress, and the American public access our performance relative to our mission and accountability for our financial resources”. It may be found with the reference books under Ref KF 3091 .A32 P27 2008.

• Search Interfaces
• Structure
• Capabilities
• Modules

FIX FOR X-SEARCH ERROR

The “run-time error 9” message encountered when trying to print documents from the “all tagged” list has been found and fixed with the deployment of X-Search 1.16.2. This bug has been a long standing issue in X-Search and many users had found a work-around that could be used. Problem reports from the PSF users and the sample searches provided were the key to finding the solution to the problem. Please continue to report problems with any UPWS systems so we can take steps to improve the functionality and data of UPWS applications. 

WEST SEARCH TECHNIQUES

There are two options for searching in the patent information application called WEST. The Structured form allows searching in single or multiple indexes. The user can choose to search using all indexes or only specific ones (AB, TI, etc). When multiple databases are selected for searching, the number of search indexes available are reduced as well as the available display formats. When searching in only a single database, more search fields are available including the claims field (CLM). The Freeform approach allows the user to select multiple databases and search by entering multiple field indexes within the text box. Specific displays can also be selected. Once the search is conducted, click on the “L” number to view the results. To view the patent information in another display format, right click in the text area and select the display option from the list shown. Not all display formats can be used with the multiple database approach. The display format must be common to the databases chosen. For example, PNO (Patent number only) can be used in the US Patents Full: Text Database only.

WORKAROUND TO IMPROVE EAST APPLICATION RESPONSE TIME

When browsing large collections of patents displayed in the EAST application there can be a time delay as the system populates the text for each patent document image in the browser window. The system takes a short time to retrieve the patent document image. Populating the text fields for each patent may take more time. When the text panel is open in the browser, EAST continues to populate the text for each patent as long as the text panel in the browser is open. The system continues to retrieve text for the first group of retrieved patent images even as you start looking at the next set of patent images or if you close the browser. The EAST application finishes this text processing before it begins any new search.

The workaround is to close the text panel within the EAST browser. This can be done by opening the browser window with only the image of the patent. It can also be done from the traditional three panel display by changing the text panel to a second image panel or a details grid panel. When a patent of interest is found, you may reset the duplicate panel back to text to study that patent in greater detail. You reset the text back to a second image or details grid to continue browsing the document collection. 

• Search Topics
• Hints
• Results
• Reminders

LOCATING LOST TRADEMARK OR PATENT CASE FILES

Requests to locate missing paper Trademark files can be submitted to the attention of the Trademark Assistance Center Manager. Any request for Patent files that cannot be located and indicate a warehouse location should be submitted to the File Information Unit Manager. If the missing patent file is showing an Art Unit location the requests should be submitted to the particular Art Unit.

FILE INFORMATION UNIT RELOCATES TO SHIRLINGTON

The File Information Unit moved from (South Tower) 2900 Crystal Drive Arlington, Va. Room 2E04 on March 20, 2009 to Randolph Square, 2800 S. Randolph St., Arlington, Va. 3rd floor. The new telephone numbers are 703-756-1800 or 1801.

Public Information Services
United States Patent and Trademark Office
P. O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450