In early August 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) was notified that some protected patent application information may have been exposed in Patent Center between December 2, 2017, and August 1, 2024.
If you had a patent application in Patent Center that had an assignment recorded but was unpublished, the questions below will address what you should know and who to contact for more information.
This page will be updated as necessary with additional relevant information as it becomes available. (Last updated – August 14, 2024)
What you should know
1. What happened?
On August 1, 2024, a stakeholder notified the USPTO that certain protected information about an unpublished application was potentially accessible from the Assignments page of Patent Center. We determined this was the result of a 2017 configuration error in Patent Center’s assignment page code.
That same day, the assignments functionality within Patent Center was disabled to prevent any further potential exposure. By August 2, 2024, upon further investigation, the USPTO began the process to notify potentially impacted applicants, stakeholders, and the public.
2. What information was potentially exposed?
The potentially exposed information from unpublished applications that had an assignment action included:
- Title of the application
- Application number (the two-digit series code plus the six-digit serial number)
- Application owner name
- Application filing date
- Name of the inventor and names of joint inventors
Specifications (including claims and drawings) were not exposed as a result of this error.
3. How do I determine whether my patent application information was potentially exposed?
Your application could have been potentially exposed only if:
- Your application had an assignment recorded before it was published or patented, and
- Your application was unpublished between December 2, 2017, and August 1, 2024
If the application was otherwise public, such as by virtue of the publication of a parent application, then it was not affected. Additional information on the availability of patent application information to the public may be found in Section 103 of Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (9th Edition, Rev. 07.2022). The USPTO has verified evidence of only one instance of unauthorized viewing - which was from the individual who reported the issue to the USPTO in good faith
Reexamination proceedings and reissue applications are public and therefore were not affected by this data exposure.
4. Who should I contact for additional guidance in determining whether my application may have been impacted?
Inquiries regarding this matter may be directed to Mark Polutta, Senior Legal Advisor, at 571-272-7709, Kristie Mahone, Senior Legal Advisor, at 571-272-9016, or Andrew St.Clair, Legal Advisor, at 571-270-0238, of the Office of Patent Legal Administration or via email addressed to Patent.Practice@uspto.gov.
5. How do I request that certain assignment information, such as the Patent Assignment Abstract of Title, be added to my non-public patent application file so I can view it in Patent Center Private View?
The USPTO has implemented a temporary procedure whereby a practitioner or the applicant may submit form SB469 to request that the USPTO place the Patent Assignment Abstract of Title into the application file to be viewable in Patent Center Private View. The Patent Assignment Abstract of Title includes information such as the title of the invention, inventor name(s), assignee(s), assignor(s), recordation date, and reel and frame number(s) where documents related to title are recorded. Form SB469 will be available at Forms for Patent Applications until electronic access to assignment records in Patent Center is fully restored.