Public Records Division (PRD)/Public Search Services Division (PSSD)
Quarterly Public User’s Meeting
June 23, 2016
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. Donna Cooper, Manager of Public Records Division, chaired the meeting.
Announcements
John Owens was unable to attend today’s meeting; Rhonda Foltz, Director of the Office of Information Management Services, attended in his absence. There were two members of the public in attendance.
Public Search Facility Status
Terry Howard, Manager of the Public Search Facility, announced that a new version of EAST would be deployed soon and that it should have little impact on the public. Most of the changes are necessary changes to help move EAST toward Patents-End-to-End and provide a number of bug fixes. Terry also mentioned that Patent Bound Volumes were being packed up, which is a normal activity to send the older ones to NARA for retention. Lastly, it was announced that some of the PSF handouts will be revised to reflect the new USPTO branding format.
Public Records Division Status
Donna Cooper reported that a new version of Patent Assignment Search will be deployed soon. The new version will include a Quick Lookup to allow the user to search for assignments by a single search term, such as patent number or reel/frame number. Images of patent assignments that are available electronically will be included. Trademark Assignment Search will also be deployed soon. A public user mentioned that Financial Manager looks similar to Assignment Search.
Question and Answer with Rhonda Foltz
Q: When will some of the foreign data, such as JPO and EPO be updated? JPO data has not been updated since 2013 and EPO since 2010.
A: This is being investigated.
Q: When will continuation-in-part information be included in FPRS family filtering on EAST?
A: This is being investigated.
Q: Public asked for a timeline about when the revamped search engine (Patent-End-to-End) will be available.
A: Rhonda responded that it is on the books and should be out next year. One member of the public suggested using some of the USPTO public users to test the new system. This was noted.
Q: Is it possible to provide regular updates to the public about what’s going on while USPTO moves forward with systems?
A: This suggestion was also noted.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 p.m. Next meeting date TBA.