U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Information Products Division
Data Dissemination
Trademark Daily XML Migration

October 15, 2004

Trademark Daily XML Files - Weekly Status Report

The following is a status update for all inquiries.

Inquiries can be made to: Ed Johnson at Ed.Johnson@uspto.gov - (703) 306-2621 or Jazmin Rexrode at Jazmin.Rexrode@uspto.gov - (703) 306-2626 or sent to OEIP@uspto.gov.

*The format of the Weekly Status Report will appear as follows:
1. Each inquiry is given a USPTO Control # for tracking purposes.
2. The summary portion of “Status of Inquiries” will be “grouped” by the current status.
3. The detail portion of the report will be in sequence Control # (for easier reference).

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Any inquiries that require additional research and/or response are considered outstanding inquiries and will appear in red, bold and italicized.

Inquiries that have been resolved will have the resolution in black, bold, italicized and underlined.

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For Your Information – FYI:

10/15/2004:

Control #96:

Servers and other hardware are being moved to the USPTO Data Center in Crystal City in preparation of the subsequent move to the Alexandria Campus.

The majority of the equipment maintained by OEIP is used to produce the CASSIS line of optical disc products and the equipment that is used to disseminate the daily trademark files is being replaced.

Phase 1: September 20, 2004 - Hardware used to produce CASSIS products was successfully moved.

Phase 2: September 23, 2004 - Hardware used to produce USAApp and USAPat products was successfully moved.

Phase 3: September 29, 2004 - Hardware used to produce NTAF products was successfully moved.

Phase 4: October 2004 - New hardware to support the Data File Delivery (DFD) FTP system has been ordered and will be installed and configured in the USPTO Data Center in Crystal City.

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08/13/2004:

Requirements and Proposed Schedule for the updated Trademark Daily Applications product – Control #61

Requirements:

Proposed Schedule:

• September 1, 2004 – The updated Daily Application DTD and Documentation to be released. Test files will be made available during the month of September 2004.
  
• October 8, 2004 – Proposed parallel process to include the updated Daily Application product along with the current production product to take place October 8, 2004 through December 31, 2004.

10/15/2004:

Updated Trademark-Applications-Documentation-v2.0-10152004.doc has been placed on the
TDXF DTD's, Documentation, and Sample Data page in the “C” Area and also included with the Trademark Weekly Status Reported dated October 15, 2004.

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• January 3, 2005 – Proposed deployment of the updated Daily Application product into production.

NOTE: Once the updated Daily Application product is accepted and placed into production, the Monthly Status File and the Monthly Contractor Reports will be discontinued in a timely manner.

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04/16/2004:

"The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is processing paper Madrid filings within a week of receipt and electronic applications within hours. Information is generally viewable on the USPTO website within 24 hours of the completion of Trademark processing. In addition to the work done on Madrid filings at the USPTO, there is also processing at the International Bureau of WIPO. Thus, in certain circumstances pendency is influenced by any backlogs that might develop at WIPO."

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Availability of Files:

10/15/2004:

All files for the week ending October 15, 2004 were available on time with the following exceptions:

Control # 133 – 10/12/2004
The following error occurred for TTAB file dated 10/08/2004.

[Fatal Error] tt041008.xml Character reference "&#18" invalid.

The record with the invalid entity character was removed from the file and the file dated 10/08/2004 was re-posted.

The invalid character will be researched and the record provided in a subsequent file.

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Control #95 – 09/27/2004:

These applications 78133250 and 78358000 appear as new application images in the 24 Hour Box without associated XML data.

10/15/2004:

78133250 and 78358000 were both rescanned and placed back in the 24 Hour Box. - The reason that they were rescanned was due to the fact that the image residing at the USPTO was corrupt in some manner and was being replaced.

Note: The documentation for the Trademark 24 Hour Box will be updated to include: If a cropped image appears in the 24 Hour Box “root directory” without associated xml data it can be assumed that this image is replacing an existing image.

Control #95 is being re-opened to investigate why these rescanned images were present as full-page images in the 24 Hour Box and not subsequently cropped.

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Status of Inquiries:

10/15/2004:

Closed: Control #122, Control #130, Control #132, Control #134, Control #136

In Process:

Control #61, Control #95, Control #108, Control #121, Control #127, Control #128, Control #129, Control #131, Control #133

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Inquiry – 08/13/2004: Control #61 – Requirements Trademark Daily Applications “C” version.

1. The updated Trademark Daily Applications product will include all data fields provided in the current product. Reference the “B” Trademark Applications Daily XML DTD Element Documentation (v1.2) located on the TDXF DTD's, Documentation, and Sample Data page.

2. Provide all MADRID PROTOCOL INFORMATION (including Madrid History and Multiple transactions) for applications going to the International Bureau (IB).

3. Provide all MADRID PROTOCOL INFORMATION for applications received from the International Bureau (IB).

4. Provide status code changes on a daily basis that are now only provided in the Monthly Status file.

5. Provide the Date In Location and the Law Office Assigned in addition to the <law-office-assigned-location-code> field that is currently provided.

6. Provide the Abandonment-Date and Mis-Assigned Numbers. This information is currently only available in the Monthly Contractor Reports.

7. Provide 2-character WIPO Standard ST. 3 country codes in the <nationality> field and the <country> field of the <case-file-owner>. Note: The data in the Correspondent Address is free form text and
will remain that way.

8. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

The above statement will be included inside the XML files but not the current “B” version of the Daily Applications file.

9. Reference Control #’’s 85, 86, 91 and 97 that were closed in the Trademark Status Report of Friday 10/01/2004. These control numbers are being applied to the daily applications requirements.

#85 - Note: name-1, name-2, name-3, name-overflow will be removed and replaced by: name

The party type and entry-number handle different owner names.

And, if there were a second owner the <entry-number> would equal 02 and the <party-type> would still equal 10.

If there were a subsequent owner that caused a new party-type the <party-type> would increment accordingly and the <entry-number> would start anew at 01.

#86 – A valid party-type code will be included with the correspondent party-type.

#87 – The <!ELEMENT madrid-international-filing-record will include a international-renewal-date? field and the <!ELEMENT madrid-history-event will include a number field.

#88 - The following element <Madrid-international-filing-request> will be renamed to <Madrid-international-filing-requests>

#89 –

1. The data elements listed in the international-registration group are for incoming requests from the
IB. The new group madrid-international-filing-requests is for outgoing requests to the IB.

2. Records that have abandonment dates are present in the test data file: TestData-v2.0-10082004.xml

3. Table 2 in the Applications Documentation will be updated to accommodate the 2-position Country and State Codes. This table will be edited until all codes are properly identified.

#91 – The correspondent change of Control #91 will be included in the new requirements. If you want to
review the entire Control #91 please reference the weekly status report dated October 01, 2004.

#97 –

1. Missing status-date element: Serial No.: 71/194337, 72/123294

Note: This was corrected in the test data dated and provided 09/24/2004.

2. The <correspondent> group doesn't contain the following tag <person-or-organization-name>

Note: All of those <correspondent> tags are missing and instead <address-1>, <address-2>, <address-3>, <address-4>, <address-5> are used.

The DTD will refer to five lines of address (person-or-organization-name has been changed). It cannot be
guaranteed that the value found in this field contains a person or organization. The field name has been
changed to address-1. Reference Control #91.

3. The <case-file-owner> contains a tag named <party-name> this should display as <name>. Reference Control #85.

Note: This has been corrected in the test data dated and provided 09/24/2004.

4. The <correspondent> group doesn't match what had been discussed in Control #91

The Status Report should have been updated to reflect the tag names that are being used in the DTD
and the Documentation. They are not in sync at the moment. I am referring to #3 and 4 in my list above.

Note: The DTD dated and provided 09/24/2004 has been updated accordingly.

10. The international-renewal-date? field has been included and the number field will contain an ascending sequence number. Reference Control #87 that was closed in the Trademark Status Report of Friday 10/01/2004.

11. <Madrid-international-filing-requests>. The “s” has been added to be consistent with the naming convention being used. . Reference Control #88 that was closed in the Trademark Status Report of Friday 10/01/2004.

12. Empty optional tags will not be present in the 2.0 XML data. Reference Control #98 that was closed in the Trademark Status Report of Friday 10/01/2004.

13. The <employee-name> will be provided. Reference Control #100 that was closed in the Trademark Status Report of Friday 10/01/2004.

14. Control #107 remains open to resolve Country and State Code issues.

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Inquiry – 10/08/2004: Control #108 “C”

This is a consolidation of all inquiries concerning the use of the Nationality, the Country and the State fields.

#105 – identifies the use of XP as a country code used when one was not provided.

#106 – identifies the content of the <nationality> field where there is no distinction if CA is California or Canada.

#107 - identifies the content of the <nationality> field where there is no distinction when using the same code for various countries or states.

#108 – Identifies 3-position country codes that remain in Table 2 of the Applications Documentation.

Table 2 in the Applications Documentation has been updated to accommodate the 2-position Country Codes, State Codes and Other Codes. Note: The codes defined as “Other” remain as 3-position codes. These codes along with the use of the xml tags (such as <nationality>) continue to be researched in an effort to make make everything uniform.

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Inquiry – 10/06/2004: Control #121 “C”

The tt040930.xml daily XML has 472 bad due dates all of them with the following erroneous data:

<due-date>00011010</due-date>

Example:

<prosecution-entry>
<identifier>38</identifier>
<code>900</code>
<type-code>T</type-code>
<due-date>00011010</due-date>
<date>20020727</date>
<history-text>OPP NO. 119,557 NO ASWER IS REQ AT THIS TIME; CONS OF OPPS; SUSP OF CONS PROC FO</history-text>
</prosecution-entry>

There was a problem on how the due date was being received from the applicant. A blanket fix was applied resulting in the erroneous data. This has subsequently been corrected and will be investigated to ensure that the corrected records are disseminated.

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Inquiry – 10/06/2004: Control #122

The following address is a correspondence address and should probably be formatted inside its own set of tags similar to the change made for Application correspondence address. These occurred in the tt040921.xml daily file.

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>427900</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>SALVATORE J. ABBRUZZESE</name>
<orgname>HOFFMANN &amp; BARON, LLP</orgname>
<address-1>6900 JERICHO TURNPIKE</address-1>
<city>SYOSSET NEW YO</city>
<state>RK</state>
<postcode>11791</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>428829</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>PACIFIC LEGEND APPAREL, INC.</name>
<address-1>1622 DEMOCRAT STREET</address-1>
<city>HONOLULU HI U</city>
<state>SA</state>
<postcode>96819</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

The <city> value is continued in the <state> value????

Maybe a structure such as the Applications Correspondent Address (DTD v2) would serve this information better:

<correspondent>
<address-1>ALLAN RATNER</address-1>
<address-2>RATNER &amp; PRESTIA</address-2>
<address-3>500 NORTH GULPH ROAD</address-3>
<address-4>POST OFFICE BOX 980</address-4>
<address-5>VALLEY FORGE, PA 19482</address-5>
</correspondent>

The only daily file current changed by the new requirements is the Daily Applications file. No major changes to the TTAB Daily file will be undertaken at this time.

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Inquiry – 10/12/2004: Control #127 “C”

1. There seem to be a lot of elements that do not have any data except a space. For example if I search the document apc041007.xml for the occurrence of "> <" (not including the quotes) I get over 10 000 matches.

<attorney-docket-number> </attorney-docket-number>
<international-registration-number> </international-registration-number>
<mark-identification> </mark-identification>
<registration-number> </registration-number>

This tag name is also affected but occurs with 2 spaces and occurs 946 times:

<country> </country>

Space or 2 spaces are present in the data being extracted. Currently these data fields must be null for the extraction to omit tag/data.

2. The following tag names were sent empty (27 occurrences total):

<entity-statement></entity-statement>
<dba-aka-text></dba-aka-text>
<composed-of-statement></composed-of-statement>
<transaction-date></transaction-date>

<entity-statement></entity-statement> -This tag being provided empty has been corrected.

<dba-aka-text></dba-aka-text> and the <composed-of- statement></composed-of-statement> - Empty tags being provided with these 2 tags is being investigated.

3. Here are the Serial Numbers with the empty <transaction-date></transaction-date>

<case-file>
<serial-number>78701770</serial-number>
<registration-number>0000000</registration-number>
<transaction-date></transaction-date>
...
<case-file>
<serial-number>78846169</serial-number>
<registration-number>0000000</registration-number>
<transaction-date></transaction-date>

This tag being provided empty has been corrected.

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Inquiry – 10/13/2004: Control #128

After downloading and processing the “C” version files I have encountered a possible problem specific to the file apc041010.xml. The version "B" for that date had 1501 applications while version "C" had 344 applications. I didn't think the number of applications would decrease when comparing the “B” version and the “C” version for a given date.

This is being researched.

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Inquiry – 10/13/2004: Control #129 “C”

1. I have processed file apc041012.xml and have encountered bad date records.

Warning:: DateFormat.isValid - bad date :: 9981001

Warning:: DateFormat.isValid - bad date :: 20806

Warning:: DateFormat.isValid - bad date :: 2030100

These bad dates of both invalid content and invalid size are what is be extracted. We are researching the problem with the Trademark business area.

2. The files apc041008.xml and apc041007.xml application counts are identical which seems suspicious. They both have 16631 applications. I found that we received the same list of serial numbers on the 8th as we did for the 7th. The only difference being that the file on the 8th had data (case-file-event-statements) for the 12th of October (the day it was processed).

This is be researched.

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Inquiry – 10/13/2004: Control #130

1. There appears to be gap of records for the daily applications filed on 9/9/2004 and 9/10/2004. We have 249 records filed on 9/9 and the PTO has 869. We have 554 filed on 9/10 and the PTO has 879.

2. Also, would you please explain why the file of 10/11/2004 had a zero record count indicating that no transaction took place on that date.

1. In researching the September nightly files approximately 872 records with a filing date of 9/9/2004 were disseminated between 9/15 and 9/30 as NA (New Applications). Approximately 886 records with a filing date of 9/10/2004 were disseminated between 9/16 and 9/30 as NA (New Applications).

2. Due to the Trademark Operations being move to the new Alexandria, VA USPTO campus a zero record count of zero for 9/11/2004 was correct.

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Inquiry – 10/14/2004: Control #131 “C”

In the "C" XML documentation the following tag <name-change-explanation> is described as such:

The <name-change-explanation> element is optional and occurs zero or more times between the <name-change-explanation> start and </name-change-explanation> end tags and contains the ASSIGNMENT/NAME CHANGE Text from an OWNX record for this mark. An "F" indicates that an Assignment/Name Change Text entry does not exist. This flag is not relevant for records with a party type of 70.

This field will never contain an "F" since it is not a mandatory element inside the <case-file-owner> and the USPTO currently ("B" and "C" XML daily files) does not send an "F" in this field when an assignment/name change does not exist.

The description of the <name-change-explanation> has been updated in the Trademark-Applications-Documentation-v2.0-10152004.doc.

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Inquiry – 10/14/2004: Control #132 “C”

The Serial No. 73/134671 was in the XML data file apc041008.xml with a transaction date equal to 20040724. There is a <madrid-international-filing-record> in this application with a <madrid-history-event> dated 20041008.

The transaction date is supposed to represent the date of the TRAM extract for KEY Action entries, in this case the <action-key> is equal to "IB" for this serial number. I suspect the transaction date is incorrect for all of the IB <action-key> applications that are in this particular distribution file.

The transaction date of the "B" file is being extracted from the “Date of Last Update”.

The transaction date of the "C" file was using LAST-MODIFIED –DATE the “Last Modified Date”.

The "C" file will now use the extract date of the source file.

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Inquiry – 10/14/2004: Control #136 “C”

The tag <location-date> which is being sent to us isn't always included in the <case-file-header> even though it is available to TARR. The following Serial No.: 75/733079 has a Date In Location on TARR but the <case-file> we received in the daily file apc041012.xml does not contain the tag <location-date>.

The “C” extraction was using a source field “date in location” which contains a null value for application 75/733079. The extraction will not use the source field “in location date” which had a value September 01, 2004 for application 75/733079.

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If you have any questions or need additional information please contact one of the following individuals:

Ed Johnson	Jazmin Rexrode
Office of Electronic Information Products	Office of Electronic Information Products
(703) 306-2621	(703) 306-2626
(703) 306-2737 Fax	(703) 306-2737 Fax
Ed.Johnson@uspto.gov	Jazmin.Rexrode@uspto.gov