Current status
As of 10 a.m. ET today, we project more than 2,200 USPTO employees
remain offline due to the faulty CrowdStrike code.
*FOR VIRTUAL APPOINTMENTS: Employees should be at your workstation at least 30 minutes
before your appointment starts and be available for at least four hours from your
appointment time.
Ex. For an 11 a.m. appointment, you should be at your
workstation at 10:30 a.m. and plan to be available until 3 p.m.
You must be at your
workstation ready to fix your computer when the technician calls. This will
allow us to finish remediating all issues. The call from
your technician will come from a number you don’t recognize (likely starting
with area code 571). Be sure to answer and confirm the legitimacy of the call
by asking the technician to provide your Workstation ID (please see more scam
caution guidance below).
Remaining affected employees now have three options for
resolution:
1)
If you are near the Alexandria, VA
area, you need to visit HQ to receive onsite assistance. Book an appointment
today or walk in: USPTOOnsite Repair booking site.
a.
The USPTO will pay travel time and expenses for
TEAP employees whose primary alternate worksite is between 50 and 150 miles of
the Alexandria campus to travel no more than 150 miles to campus via their
personally owned vehicles (POV) through Thursday, July 25. Please email ITOutageRepairTravelAuthorization@uspto.gov
and copy your direct supervisor if you are interested in this option to receive
a blanket travel authorization before you drive to Alexandria.
b.
Employees are encouraged to bring their
computer fully charged and have the power supply and power cable with them.
2)
If you are within 50 miles of the
Dallas, Denver, or San Jose regional outreach offices, you can now choose to visit
the closest office to receive onsite assistance in lieu of virtual assistance –
walk ins are being accepted between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. local time. Note: This
option is not available for the Detroit regional outreach office due to staff
limitations.
3)
For those further afield from
Alexandria HQ and regional outreach offices, you need to schedule a virtual
appointment as soon as possible: TEAP Virtual Repairbooking site
a.
You
should plan to stay close to your phone 30 minutes before your appointment
starts and for a four-hour window of your designated appointment (i.e. if you
have a 1 p.m. appointment time, please remain available until 5 p.m.).
All remaining impacted employees should now have a plan
for resolving the issue. Please refer to the CrowdStrike IToutage: FAQs for impacted employees webpage.
Other IT issues
If you are a Patents employee and are having trouble accessing
patent-related applications, such as DAV, OC, and Search, please contact PASM. Personnel from the Patents IT support team will assist
you.
If you have resolved the blue screen issue and are having
connectivity problems, or problems related to hardware such as mouses and
keyboards, please email servicedesk@uspto.gov. Our IT support teams are monitoring the inbox and
available to assist you.
Scam
caution
·
Upon joining a virtual appointment, or
receiving a call back, request that the technician confirm your workstation ID
before proceeding with the call. Note, if the technician is unable to accurately
repeat your workstation ID without your assistance (i.e. they ask you to
confirm it) please end the call.
·
Our IT technicians will never ask for
payment information.
·
Employees are not required to be on video
for the call, though some IT personnel may ask to use video calling, such as
FaceTime, so they can view your screen as they walk through instructions.
Employees unable to travel to
headquarters due to sickness, dependent or childcare obligations, travel, or
who are requesting any other accommodation, should schedule a virtual
appointment and notify their supervisor.
More information about scheduling appointments
For detailed
information about scheduling in-person appointments for Alexandria vicinity
employees and virtual appointments for TEAP employees, please see the FAQs.
Timekeeping guidance
Guidance on accounting for time was shared via USPTO
Broadcast on Monday, July 22. Supervisors and managers are being instructed to
be flexible in approving outage time to limit negative impacts to employees.
Depending on an employees’ regular work schedule, employees
will be compensated with non-production time for any days or hours that they
would have normally been working. This includes the time that their computers
were offline, and time spent working with or waiting for an appointment with an
IT technician.
Specifics about timecodes and further guidance will be
shared directly from the employees’ business unit leadership. Employees should
work with their supervisors to determine the appropriate accounting for time.
Next update
We will publish our next update tomorrow to the System 411 page.