Public Users' Meeting

Public Records Division (PRD)/Public Search Services Division (PSSD)
Quarterly Public Users' Meeting
September 14, 2017

 

Donna Cooper called the meeting to order at 2:00 PM.  Three public users were in attendance.

The CIO, John Owens, took Q&A at the beginning of the meeting.

Q. How is project to move EAST to the Web going?

A. There is movement towards moving EAST onto the web.  There were some technical issue and they are in the process of resolving them.  The project is running a few months behind expected timeline and it is now looking to be ready by middle to late Dec.

There are three interfaces that are part of moving EAST to the web.  By the end of 2nd quarter the CIO hopes to start rolling out these interfaces.  It will be Cloud based.  Once all are rolled out, they will be performing bug fixes identified in the system. 

The feedback they have been getting so far from the examiners who are currently testing is good except for some missing features.

The CIO also mentioned that there is a small beta of Patent Center going on now. Patent Center will replace Pair and EFS-Web. The beta will expand soon. Expected FY19-20.  The goal is to make sure; when they connect that, the public will use our tools but can go to others tools as well.

Derris Banks and Jerry Lorengo, from Patents, were invited to answer questions about foreign patent information and CPC Classification.

Q.  The January 2014 uploads of foreign to FPRS had many issues. Family filtering could be better.  Using the first English version as the first filter is not helpful according to one public user.  He said using the first document with an image would be better. 

A. There are still many with no images available so using the first image will not work for now.  The USPTO would like to create a toggle key to filter back and forth between first English and first Image.  Not sure if it will happen. 

A public user suggested that deleting all Italian applications plus the English placeholders may improve the situation.

Q. When will Chinese images for 2014-16 be added to FPRS? The bibliographic information is there.

A. Patents will get an answer.

Q. Will citation data for PGPubs (and PCTs) be added to EAST?

A. It is on the list of things to do.

Q. Can citation data be tied to application number rather than just a grant?

A. Patents will take a look at this.

A public user said Thank You for the info for the JP file from 2014 to 2017.  They were finally added a couple of months ago and are now getting regular updates.

Q. Usage of CPC 1 vs. A narrowing use of 1?

A. It was explained that in the USPC, ORs are mandatory. In CPC, A’s are mandatory but 1/s are not.

Q. Would like to see a faster pace of issuing CPC family and display when event occur.  

A. We have to share family data.  EPO is mostly the second filing.  As the information comes in families are established and the shared family data is added.  They are updated every day. 

Q. When the user selects the Claims display on EAST all of the CPC codes and information that go with them are listed first and then you have to scroll all the way down until you get to the Claims listing.  The Claims were what the user asked for.  They need to improve the display so when they ask for a field it is the first one listed or near the top. 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 2:35 PM.