Searching Patents and Trademarks

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

SEARCHING PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS

VOL. IX No. 2, June 2008

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

PUBLIC SEARCH FACILITY ROAD MAP

Come check out our new blue brochure located at the Reference Desk. The blue colored brochure highlights some of the products, services and information collections offered in the USPTO Public Search Facility . If you'd like to see what electronic patent and trademark resources we have, browse the microfilm collections, or search card catalog indices, this brochure is a great starting place for you!

TRADEMARK SEARCH FACILITY CLOSURE

The USPTO Trademark Search Facility in the South Tower will cease operations at 5 p.m. on Friday, September 5, 2008. After this date, trademark information resources will be accessible at the USPTO's Public Search Facility in Alexandria, Virginia.

COMING SOON!

The 2008 United States Patent & Trademark Office Public Search Facilities Customer Satisfaction Survey will be available this summer. Please take a moment out of your busy day to let us know how satisfied you are with the information collections and search services available.

Search Collections

• Digital
• Print
• Microfilm

PUBLIC TRAINING COURSES AVAILABLE MONTHLY

Training is recommended before using the on-line examiner search systems such as Trademark X-Search; Patent Examiner Assisted Search Tool (EAST) and Patent Web-based Examiner Search Tool (WEST). To find out when the training courses are offered each month or to register for a public training course, please visit the Public Search Facility Reference Desk or call 571-272-3275. There is a non-refundable fee of $25.00 per class. Training course information is also available at www.uspto.gov , just click menu item “Products and Services” and then click “About CIS”.

TM REGISTRATIONS WITH DESIGN ELEMENTS MICROFILM COLLECTION UPDATE

Registered documents with design elements classified in the following categories are now available for viewing at the Alexandria campus: Art, Music-Mythology-Building & Scenery-Letters 1, 2, and 3. The last group of Registered documents to be microfilmed in September will include the documents in the Human, Human Portraits, Checkers, Grotesque Animals, Clubs Spades and Fleur de Lis Certification categories.

Search Interfaces

• Structure
• Capabilities
• Modules

ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN THE PUBLIC SEARCH FACILITY

A tri-fold assignment information reference guide that identifies the collections of patent and trademark assignment information available for searching is now available. Please obtain a copy of this guide at one of the on-line assistance desks literature racks or ask a member of the staff for a copy of the guide.

Summarizing the contents, the Public Search Facility maintains collections of patent and trademark assignment information in a variety of formats. The Assignment Historical Database (AHD), available on the UPWS Menu, contains bibliographic information and images of recorded deeds for both patents and trademarks. Patent assignment bibliographic information available for searching is August 1980 (Reel 3800) to the present. Images of patent assignment recorded deeds dating from April 1998 (Reel 9110) to the present are also available. Trademark assignment bibliographic information available is from the year 1955 (Reel 0001) to the present. Images of recorded trademark assignment deeds are available from May 1998 (reel 1724) to the present. You can also view images of recorded deeds on microfilm or you can search assignment bibliographic information (e.g. assignee) using the card indices.

Assignment deeds recorded prior to 1955 are filed at the National Archives and Records Administration. Contact: www.archives.gov or 301-837-2000 or 1-866-272-6272.

CHANGES TO UPWS MENU

LINKS TO TM-ASSIGN AND PAT-ASSIGN REMOVED
Links to two outdated assignment information sources, TM-Assign and Pat-Assign were removed from the UPWS Menu on April 28, 2008. The Assignment Historical Database (AHD) application located on the General Information menu is used for assignment information searching.

USAMARK APPLICATION REMOVED
The link to the outdated USAMark application was removed from the Universal Public Workstation (UPWS) menu June 30, 2008. The USAMark application has been replaced by the US Trademark Registration Certificate document retrieval application that was made available on UPWS in December 2007. This application allows you to retrieve, view and print US registration certificates dating from 1870 to the current issue date. It is also available on the USPTO website. If you have any questions about searching trademark registration documents, please see a staff member at one of the on-line assistance desks.

Search Topics

• Hints
• Results
• Reminders

LOOKING FOR A BIOLOGICAL OR CHEMICAL MAGAZINE OR JOURNAL?

To search biological and chemical-related non-patent literature, please visit the Biotechnology-Chemical Library of STIC (Scientific & Technical Information Center). It is located on the 1st floor of the Remsen building at 400 Dulany Street. Specialized collections of print, electronic, and microfilm resources in the biological and chemical fields are available from 8:30 am-5:00 pm. For questions, please contact the STIC Library directly at 571-272-3547.

 

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