Public Records Division(PRD)/Public Information Services Division (PSSD)
Quarterly Public User's Meeting
July 21, 2011
The Public User's Meeting was held at 2:00 p.m. in the Global IP Academy, Madison East, 2nd Floor, at 600 Dulany Street on the USPTO campus in Alexandria, Virginia. Martha Sneed, PSSD Director, chaired the meeting. There were 2 members of the public in attendance.
Public Search Facility (PSF) Update
There have been two major changes in the PSF since the last meeting. The PSF has implemented both the closing of the 2nd floor on June 6 and the change of staffed service hours that are now from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The 2nd floor space is locked but you may see various activities on the 2nd floor and in the PSF as we prepare to turn over the space.
Since the closing of the second floor, the PSF staff has been tracking data of workstation usage. The highest concurrent number of workstations in use since June 6 was 94. The higher usage is usually on a Tuesday between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. The PSF has 117 workstations available on the 1st floor so no one has had to wait since the closing of the 2nd floor. There have been no complaints about the closing of the 2nd floor reported from either the staff or Security. Martha asked the attendees to share any concerns they may have with PSF management.
Also, in response to a question at the last public user meeting, the revised USPTO Rules of Conduct in Public Information Facilities were posted widely in the PSF and a copy placed on every workstation when they were issued in May 2011.
The UPWS environment has been stable over all except for one period of 26 hours on Thursday and Friday, June 16-17. The problem was elevated quickly.
Public Records Division Update
Donna Cooper was introduced as the new Director for Public Records Division. Donna is familiar with both Patent and Trademark processes and information. For today's meeting there was nothing new to report from the Public Records Division.
Q & A
Martha introduced the Chief Information Officer John Owens who had joined the meeting especially for the Questions and Answer period.
Comment: A positive comment was made about the smooth transition of closing of the second floor of PSF.
Question: Is there any way of finding out if the UPWS system is down without coming or calling?
Answer: We post down time in the PSF and on the Electronic sign as you come in. We do not post any outages on the website, but will explore this possibility if the outage is of significant duration.
Question: Any possibility of another cell phone booth?
Answer: No but the idea may be evaluated for next year.
Question: What will happen to Wireless?
Answer: If the budget is approved Wireless is set to be upgraded next year to 3G/4G. Also all desk tops are slated to be upgraded to Windows 7 next year. The examiners that have been updated so far appreciate the increase in speed and efficiency.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:25 p.m. The next Quarterly Public User Meeting will be announced at a later date.