Office of Public Records/Office of Public Information Services
Public User’s Meeting
November 16, 2005
2:00 p.m. - Randolph Building Conference Center

The Public Users Meeting was held at 2:00 p.m. in the 1st floor conference room 1D04/1D14, Randolph Building on the USPTO campus at Carlyle in Alexandria, Virginia. Martha Sneed, OPIS Director, chaired the meeting. There were approximately 10 members of the public in attendance and 9 USPTO staff.

Public Search Facility Update

Space Briefing:

• Lisle Hannah of the USPTO Space Team introduced new USPTO training initiatives that will impact current space configurations of public facilities at the Alexandria campus. The School for Examiner Education and Development (SEED) will train new patent examiners in a completely new training facility to be constructed on the 1st and 2nd floors of Madison WEST, reconfiguring the current training facility on the second floor, and taking over STIC space on the first floor.
• The second initiative involves the creation of an IP Global Academy (IPGA) to provide IP law training for foreign judges, government officials (including USPTO counterparts) and law enforcement officials. The IPGA will be located on the second floor of the Public Search Facility (PSF). A tentative floor plan was shown to attendees detailing the proposed changes to the PSF.
• Two hundred thirty seven Universal Public Workstations (UPWS) would be preserved in the PSF space, down from the current 308. This number more than accommodates current peak utilization.
• The numeric patent bound volumes would be moved to archive space in Suitland, MD and that first floor space used for UPWS relocated from second floor.

After the briefing, the public attendees expressed the following concerns:

• Prime space should be given to daily customers, not visitors or infrequent customers.
• The Internet cafe takes up too much space that is well suited to public searchers' lengthy search sessions. It ought to be located elsewhere.
• There are security concerns with allowing people from outside the U.S. to have access to the public search facility and potentially see cases that users are working on.
• They do not want to be squashed together as they were in Crystal City, resulting in lack of personal workspace and noise pollution. The new space was supposed to address that situation, and now the agency is reducing this space after only one year.
• Future use of UPWS cannot be predicted. For instance, public users have been informed that USPTO outsourced searches will be conducted in Public Search Facility, causing a large increase in workstation utilization.
• The IPGA should be located offsite.
• The FIU should be located in Alexandria, or at least provide reading room capability (not photocopying) in Alexandria.

Martha Sneed encouraged the public to forward their concerns via the psf@uspto.gov email address.

Abandoned Trademark Applications:

Abandoned Trademark applications will be microfilmed to allow space for growing paper trademark registrations. A public notice was posted announcing the effort. The records will be removed and out of use for approximately 2 weeks during the transfer process.

UPWS/Systems :

• X-Search was impacted by problems with network server on Thursday, November 10. The server was back up by Monday, November 14.
• X-Search experienced some database problems on Sunday, November 13 - showing incorrect live/dead status. The problem was fixed by Sunday afternoon.
• A new version of X-Search is scheduled for release Tuesday night, November 22. (This has since been delayed a bit.)

Customer Feedback:

• Is there a backup system for EAST?
  • Answer: WEST is used as a backup for EAST. There are no plans to create a separate backup system for EAST.
• A customer experienced problems with X-Search dumping and locking out their password when sending text messages and when highlighting/copying text. This has happened repeatedly.
  • Action: Doug Salser will investigate.
• A member of the public requested that the shut-off time for workstations in the PSF be extended 5-10 minutes.
  • Such an adjustment had been done previously but workstations have begun shutting down at the earlier time again.
  • The customer was assured that the shut down time would be adjusted.
• Facilities - There were some complaints about the restrooms in the PSF:
  • A broken urinal in the Men's room, empty soap dispensers in the 2nd floor Lady's room and restrooms are not being cleaned regularly.
  • Diane Lewis, Manager of PSF, announced they are trying to stay on top of any problems with the restroom facilities. Toilets are being replaced in the 2nd floor Men's room. Ms. Lewis encouraged the public to keep her informed of any problems experienced while using the PSF.

Office of Public Records Updates

DSD is working off a backlog for certified orders. The number of days to fill orders may increase until the backlog is worked off.

Next Meeting:

The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m. The next Public Users Meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. in the same location.

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