Patents Assist Subscriber Notice

2001 March Issue

We are pleased to provide you with the 2001 March issue of Patents ASSIST, the first issue to be published with the new Cassis2 user interface on DVD-ROM. You must have a second-generation DVD-ROM drive to use this disc.

Windows capabilities and the new and improved Cassis2 features are now available, including an online Help system.

System Requirements:

Pentium PC running Windows 95 (service pack 5); Windows 98; Windows NT (service pack 4); or Windows 2000; Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher is necessary to access the online Help system; and a Second-generation DVD-ROM drive. Note that this software will not run under DOS or Windows 3.x.

Installation Instructions:

1. Insert the disc into the DVD-ROM drive. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer and locate your DVD-ROM drive. Click on the setup.exe file to begin the installation process.

2. It is recommended that you accept all defaults by clicking the Next button.

a. If you change the default directory during the first stage of the installation process, you must also change it during the second stage. If the directory location is not synchronized, you will receive a "file not found" error and the application will not run.

b. When you are asked about leaving repository files on the setup disc, accept the default. If you do not accept this default, you will copy more than 6GB to your hard drive.

3.    The installation process will begin. The process is in two stages, DO NOT press any buttons until the process is complete! When the installation is complete, you will receive a message that the install is complete.

4. Once Cassis2 is installed, you will open the program from Start/Programs/Cassis/Cassis (unless you changed the directory).

If you have an earlier version of the software on your computer, you will be prompted to uninstall that version prior to installing the new version. Confirm that you want to uninstall, but answer NO when asked about uninstalling shared files, such as files with .dll or .ocx extensions.

Patents ASSIST User's Guide:

A draft copy of the Patents ASSIST User's Guide accompanies this disc. The User's Guide provides details of the Cassis2 user interface and the file contents of the disc. Step-by-step instructions for constructing search queries are provided as well.

Special Feature in the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP):

In addition to searchable text, the MPEP is accessible in a Table of Contents mode. To use the table of contents, click on the Table of Contents icon  located on the far right of the toolbar. When you click on this icon, the upper window of the Results screen becomes a hyper-linked table of contents. Click on the specific chapter or section you want to access and the text is displayed in the lower window. Note that the Results tab displays "Contents" when you are in the table of contents mode. When you want to return to text searching, click on the table of contents icon and the Results screen is reset and the tab again displays "Results." There is more information about this feature in the User's Guide and online Help.

We appreciate your patience during this transitional period. We hope that you will find that the product's enhancements create a more efficient searching environment for you. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.

2001 June 22