Office of Public Records
Public User’s Meeting
July 21, 2004
2:00 p.m.

The Public Users Meeting was held at 2:00pm in the Patents Theater, Crystal Park 2, 2121 Crystal Drive, Room 200, Arlington, VA. Ted Parr, OPR Director, chaired the meeting. There were approximately 20 members of the public in attendance and nine USPTO staff.

Announcements

• At the next Public Users Meeting, August 18th, 2004, a Security Officer will speak briefly on the new badging procedures for the PSF once it moves to new space.
• Martha Sneed will have a new, more detailed floor plan of the new facility.
• TM search library’s problem with a shortage of shoe cases will be remedied in the next day or two. Additional shoe cases are being made available.

Mary Small was introduced to demonstrate the newest version of Public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) with access to IFW. PAIR is in the final days of testing and preparation and is scheduled to be available July 30, 2004. The demonstration was live except for actual viewing of IFW data, which had to be from screenshots, as the test database was down during the demo. A handout was circulated to the viewing audience that contained images of the screens that will be available in the new Public PAIR.

Question: What will be available through PAIR? What images will be available?
Response: Patents, published applications, re-exams, re-issues, any application that is claimed priority by a published application will be available through PAIR. For filing dates since June 2003 the official file has been in IFW so IFW contains the complete prosecution history since June 2003. It also contains selected backfiles of pending applications so there are some applications prior to June 2003. There are now close to 800,000 IFW files available.

Question: When is the next release of PAIR?
Response: The next version will definitely be released by November, possibly sooner.

Question: Will more older application files be available?
Response: Most official files will probably not go back further than June 2003. Applications as filed have been included as far back as 1997 but there is no plan to extend these dates further back.

Question: How can we tell if IFW data is available for a particular application?
Response: If IFW data is available an IFW tab will be visible in PAIR. If there is no visible tab IFW data is not available.

Question: Will there be a way to distinguish between IFW being down as opposed to unavailable when searching?
Response: No, but the suggestion was noted and will be considered.

Question: Will there be an option for Power-To-Inspect for unpublished applications?
Response: Applicants may use Private PAIR. The issue of Power to Inspect in the Public Search Facility is under management review and awaiting a decision.

Question: Why doesn’t Public PAIR contain NPL images?
Response: Jay Lucas explained that a policy decision had been made to balance copyright concerns with USPTO’s obligation to provide complete certified copies. NPL will not be freely downloadable from Public PAIR but will be available in certified copies of the prosecution history provided by OPR.

Question: What form does the certified copy have when ordered through Public PAIR?
Response: Certified copies from IFW will be delivered on CD.

Question: What do we do if a country refuses to accept priority documents CDs, as has happened with JPO?
Response: OPR has been producing priority documents on CD for two years and we are working with other intellectual property offices toward complete acceptance of electronic documents. Should another office refuse to accept a CD they should be willing to accept a paper copy printed from the CD. If not, upon presentation of a notice of non-acceptance by another intellectual property office we will be willing in particular cases to provide a paper copy.

Question: Can uncertified copies be ordered from Public PAIR?
Response: Uncertified copies may be downloaded directly from Public PAIR but, for IFW applications, only certified copies may be “ordered” from Public PAIR and OPR.

Question: Will you get a confirmation number when ordering through PAIR?
Response: Yes.

Question: Can users in the Public Search Room be included in the beta test?
Response: The beta test ends July 21 so there is no time to extend the beta into the Public Search Room.

Question: Will there be customer service boxes in Alexandria?
Response: This issue is under management review and awaiting a decision.

Question: What is the status of retaining Datamaxx terminals?
Response: Still under review. If there is a decision to remove, a public notice will be posted.

Question: Any update on the date of the FIU move?
Response: The FIU move date to South Tower is Sept. 10, 2004.

The meeting concluded at approximately 3:15 pm. Next meeting date is August 18, 2004.

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