Minutes of April 20, 2004
Office of Public Records (OPR) Public Users Meeting

The Public User’s Meeting was called to order at 2:00pm in the Patent Theater, Crystal Park 2 Building, 2121 Crystal Drive, Room 200, Arlington, VA.

Ted Parr, OPR Director, directed the attention of the meeting to the topics listed on the agenda. He informed the public that the minutes for the last meeting are available to be viewed on the Internet at the USPTO website. The public was also invited to submit suggestions for meeting topics via the OPR e-mail address (OPR@uspto.gov).

USPTO staff in attendance were: Ted Parr, Martha Sneed OPIS Director, John Hassett Director OAS, architect Mike Bevenour, Pat Brecht, Joyce Johnson, Doug Salser, and Doris Chaney. Approximately 25 members of the public attended the meeting.

The first order of business was to update topics raised in the previous Public User’s meeting.

Search room availability during move to Alexandria

Martha Sneed announced the creation of an electronic mailbox for Public Search Facility (PSF) issues. After testing of the new e-mail box is complete the public will be able to make use of it. It will be designated as PSF@uspto.gov.

Contrary to indications at the last meeting, searching will be available during the move to the new Public Search Facility at Carlyle—there will be no interruption in service. This announcement brought a round of applause from the public.

Question: What is the precise date of the move? No date yet. The current location must be vacated by September 30th so the move will occur prior to that date. The move date depends on the delivery of the building at Carlyle. According to the architect, Mike Bevenour, the goal is to accomplish the move over the last 2 weekends in September.

Cashiers Window in South Tower

Mr. Bevenour addressed the location of the cashiers’ window. It will be located on the second floor and will be used for the File Information Unit (FIU) and Trademark (TM) library. He reiterated the fact that the FIU and TM library will be located in South Tower and not at Carlyle. This continues to be a sore point for some customers who especially want the FIU to be co-located with the PSF. Mr. Bevenour stressed space allocation as the reason the paper heavy operations will relocate from current space to ST and not to Carlyle. Code regulations for ADA access, etc., also play a factor in how the space at Carlyle is utilized. The FIU will be located on the second floor in the northeast corner of ST.

Some users questioned the number of data terminals being made available. Some suggested that by limiting the number of terminals more space would be available for the FIU to be moved to Carlyle along with the PSF. Ms. Sneed noted that there has been a 96% increase in terminal usage and therefore more stations are needed.

A customer raised the issue of not having been asked what was needed by the public users to perform their tasks for their clients. Ms. Sneed reminded them of the focus group sessions held in 2000 to obtain customer feedback on what was needed by the public users at the PTO. There were 2 focus sessions held; 1 for FIU and 1 for PSF. A customer inquired about assignments but was informed there were no focus sessions held specifically for OPR.

Public Search Facility and FIU hours of operation

John Hassett addressed the question of hours of operation. The hours of operation will still be a 12-hour span. Operating hours for PSF will continue to be 8:00am through 8:00pm; starting/ending hours for the FIU may change however. TM Library will continue their regular 8:00am until 5:00pm hours of operation. A customer suggested that hours set to run later in the day are better, especially for customers with clients in the west coast time zone.

A customer raised the question of what offices are staying in Crystal City. John Hassett answered that the following offices would stay and locate in ST:

Office of Public Records
Office of Initial Patent Examination
PCT Operations
File Information Unit
Patent Publications

He was also asked about the location of the Scientific and Technical Information Center (STIC). It will be relocated to Carlyle.

Question: Will there be mailroom filing in Crystal City? John Hassett answered that he would check on that. 75% of incoming mail to PTO goes to OIPE. All outgoing mail will probably go out from Carlyle. He said he would have to follow-up on that to determine how it will be handled.

A question was raised about the need for workstations adjacent to the FIU, for example, REPS terminals. The design of the FIU, once moved to ST, will determine available space.

Questions: What restrictions will there be on use of workstations at FIU? Will there be enough file inspection terminals at FIU? Available workspace? Will there be customer access to FIU from TM search library? Who will be in charge of the terminals at ST and provide technical support? These issues are still being worked.

Question: What about the customer delivery boxes on the Patent and TM sides? John Hassett answered that boxes would be reconstructed at Carlyle. Ted Parr spoke about the boxes at ST. The assumption is that there will continue to be boxes at ST. Pat Brecht also clarified that the boxes are there for PTO order delivery.

Question: How long will the offices that relocate to ST be in that space? We will probably not be there past 2007 since the lease expires at that time.

Question: How will PTO handle growth within the next 10 years? Will more building be built? Mike Bevenour stressed that the ultimate PTO goal is eventual consolidation at Carlyle over time. Extra space is available adjacent to Carlyle.

Wireless Internet Access in the Public Search Facility

Reception is problematic for cell phones, blackberrys, and pagers. Service depends on the specific service carriers and type of devices used. Communications contractors have been asked what can be done to improve reception. Vendor’s (currently Verizon) solution may be costly. A customer suggested seeking other wireless providers who may offer less costly solutions.

Martha Sneed addressed the customer’s concern about wireless internet access in the PSF. It is being looked into and research is being done but wireless access will probably not happen in 2004 as PTO’s primary concern is providing cellular access. However, it is on the list to be seriously explored.

Sequence/accuracy of scanning into IFW

Martha Sneed read answers from Patents to some questions that were brought up during the last meeting relating to IFW. A representative from Patents, who was to address this topic, was not able to attend the meeting.

Backfile paper application documents are indexed and scanned in the same order the documents appear in the paper applications. New IFW applications are indexed and scanned in the order they are received. Papers filed the same day are indexed by specific groupings.

IFW records are the official legal record. External customers will not be able to change page orders.

Question: If a page is missing can it be submitted and then added to the document? Missing pages is a Patent prosecution issue and the same procedure should be followed as for paper files with missing pages.

Question: What is a Miscellaneous paper, as many papers seem to be marked in IFW as Miscellaneous rather than using more descriptive codes? Mr. Parr explained that there are over 200 indexing codes and asked for examples.

Question: Who assigns codes to documents as they come in? Is there any quality control? Mr. Parr answered that there is quality control exercised. There are 3 different quality control steps. Best effort is made to maintain quality control. However, the area responsible will be better able to answer the question.

Customers asked for a meeting to include TM quality control and Patents quality control.

Trademark Search Library consolidation proposal

Martha Sneed indicated there will be no TM Search Library consolidation between now and the move to Carlyle.

Question: What about PTO space in North Tower? John Hassett responded that space in NT is limited to two thirds of the 5th floor and a small space on the 9th floor. PTO will relinquish the 5th floor when South Tower is vacated. The PTO Health Unit will remain on the 9th floor.

The meeting wrapped up at 3:45pm.

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