United States Patent and Trademark Office OG Notices: 29 October 2002

                  Status of Office of Public Records Services

   The Office of Public Records (OPR) processes and fills orders
for both certified and uncertified copies of Patent and Trademark
Office documents and records assignments and other documents related to
title. This is an update of actual processing times during the month of
September 2002:

Document Services                       Goal            Actual
                                                        Processing
                                                        Time

Certified Documents

Patent Applications-As-Filed,            7 days          4 days
   Expedited
Patent Applications-As-Filed,           17 days          6 days
   Regular
Patent Related File Wrappers            25 days         43 days*
Patent Copies                           10 days          4 days
Patent Assignments                      10 days          5 days
Trademark Applications-As-Filed,         7 days          3 days
   Expedited
Trademark Applications-As-Filed,        17 days          4 days
   Regular
Trademark Related File Wrappers         25 days         22 days*
Trademark Assignments                   10 days          5 days
Trademark Registrations, Expedited       5 days          3 days
Trademark Registrations, Regular        14 days          5 days

Uncertified Documents

Expedited Patent Copies                  1 day           1 day
Regular Patent Copies                    5 days          3 days
Plant Patents                            5 days          2 days
Patent Assignments                      10 days          2 days
Patent Related File Wrappers            25 days         25 days*
Expedited Trademark Copies               1 day           0 days**
Regular Trademark Copies                 5 days          2 days
Trademark Assignments                   10 days          4 days
Related File Wrappers                   25 days         23 days*

*Includes turnaround times for files on Official Search and
File Reconstruction.
**No orders were filled during the reporting month.

During the month of September 2002, a total of 15,406 public
orders (23,258 copies) were filled and closed, or 3,988 orders more
(857 copies less) than the FY-02 planning number of 11,418 orders
(24,115 copies) to be closed for this month.

Please do not submit "follow-up" or duplicate copies of
orders. Customers should use the above actual processing
time for each product as a guide as to when they can expect their
orders to be completed. In cases where an urgent deadline
is approaching, contact OPR Customer Service at (703) 308-9726 or 1
(800) 972-6382 for assistance with a particular order.

Customers are encouraged to fax orders for copies directly to the
Document Services Division at (703) 308-9759 and to pay by PTO Deposit
Account, MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover. Copy orders
also may be placed through the Internet by accessing the PTO home page
at www.uspto.gov and selecting the "Order Copies" option. Information on
the status of pending orders may be obtained by calling (703) 308-9726
or 1 (800) 972-6382 (outside the Washington, DC Metro area), or via
E-mail: dsd@uspto.gov.

ASSIGNMENT SERVICES

The Assignment Services Division is currently mailing recordation
notices for paper documents received in the Office of Public Records on
July 31, 2002. The cycle time to process, record, and mail notices for
paper documents is 58 calendar days.

Recordation notices for assignment documents transmitted
electronically to the Assignment Services Division are current through
receipts for September 27, 2002. The cycle time to process, record, and
return notices for electronic documents is 1 calendar day.

October 2, 2002                                      PATRICK ROWE, Director
                                                   Office of Public Records