The Electronic Availability of the Official Gazette of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Patents on the USPTO Web Site with Proposed Enhancements The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is considering providing the Official Gazette of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Patents (OG - Patents) electronically on the USPTO Web site with enhanced electronic formats. The information in the OG - Patents is already electronically available to the public without cost, over the Internet through the USPTO Web site; however, it is not all accessible from a single access page. As described below, the proposed enhanced electronic formats would provide the OG - Patents as a coherent electronic document with improved search capabilities on the Internet, without cost, or as a single electronic document through other electronic media, with a fee. Since implementing these enhancements would require extensive resources, public comment is requested on the enhancements described in this notice. The enhancements may not be fully implemented if public feedback is minimal or negative. The Office also invites public comments on other capabilities or functionalities that may assist the public in using the electronic OG. The paper publication of the OG - Patents Currently, the paper publication of the OG - Patents is available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), as an annual subscription or as single copies. The current cost of an annual subscription of the OG - Patents is $2,698 for domestic, sent nonpriority; $3,115 for domestic, sent first class; and $3,372 for foreign. The cost of a single issue is $88 for domestic, sent nonpriority, and $110 for foreign. The OG Notices is the first section of the OG - Patents and it is also found in the Official Gazette of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Trademarks. The cost of an annual subscription of the OG Notices is $125 for domestic, sent nonpriority; $170 for domestic, sent first class; and $156.25 for foreign. Single issues of the OG Notices are not available. More detailed information on the paper publications of the OG - Patents and the OG Notices is provided on the GPO Web site at http://www.access.gpo.gov/. A limited version of the OG - Patents is currently available electronically on the USPTO Web site. The USPTO currently provides information contained in the OG - Patents electronically over the Internet through the USPTO Web site. The full text of the OG Notices, the first section of the OG - Patents, is provided at http://www.uspto.gov/go/og. The Web site provides weekly issues of the OG Notices from January 3, 1995 to the current week. The information in the next several sections of the OG - Patents (containing reexaminations, reissue patents, patents, defensive publications, and Statutory Invention Registrations (SIRs) issued weekly), is electronically available in the USPTO Web Patent Database at http://www.uspto.gov/go/pats/. The database electronically provides the bibliographic information, full-text, and full-page images for all of the patents, reissue patents, defensive publications, and SIRs issued from January 1, 1976 to the most recent weekly issue date. By performing the appropriate search, the information in each weekly OG - Patents can be found in the database. The information in the last two sections of the OG - Patents "Classification of Patents" and "Geographical Index of Residence of Inventors", is also available electronically by performing a Boolean search on the USPTO Web Patent Database for the class/subclass and the issue date, and by searching for the inventor city, state, or country and issue date, respectively. Thus, the public has electronic access to the information contained the OG - Patents without cost, provided one has Internet access capabilities. Proposed Enhancements of the Electronic OG - Patents The USPTO is considering enhancing the functionality of the current electronic OG - Patents by providing two convenient searchable formats- a page-composed gazette and a virtual gazette, over the Internet through the USPTO Web site. A. The page-composed electronic gazette (OG - Patents PDF) would be available on the USPTO Web site. The OG - Patents PDF would provide information in Adobe PDF format. Each section of the OG - Patents also could be viewed, browsed, and searched using any Web browser on any computer platform with a freely-available Adobe Acrobat viewer. The format of the text would closely approximate the current paper publication, such as providing one claim and one figure (when a figure exists) for each patent in that weekly issue. Similar to the electronic OG Notices, each weekly issue of the OG - Patents would be available through a main menu in the OG - Patents PDF. A click of the mouse on a particular issue listed in the main menu would display the table of contents, which lists all the section titles of that OG - Patents. The text of each section would be displayed by clicking the mouse on a particular section title. Hence, the OG - Patents PDF would provide navigation capabilities, allowing users to access any specific section of the OG - Patents. B. The virtual gazette (VOG - Patents) would be available on the USPTO Web site. Similar to the current electronic OG Notices, the VOG - Patents would provide a main menu, listing all the weekly issues of the OG - Patents available. A click of the mouse on a particular issue would display the table of contents of that issue of the OG - Patents. Since the first section of the OG - Patents is the OG Notices, the VOG - Patents would link to specific pages of the current electronic OG Notices to display the textual information contained in the OG Notices section of each issue of the OG - Patents. Thus, users who are familiar with the current electronic OG Notices would find that the VOG - Patents has similar functions with enhanced features. The table of contents also would provide a link to a list of all the patent numbers and titles in that weekly issue, in descending patent number order. With another click of the mouse on any particular patent number and title listed, the bibliographic information, specification, and claims of that patent would be displayed. The VOG - Patents would utilize pre-set searches of the presently available Patent Full-Text Database to display this information. Users would be able to display the full-page images with one additional mouse click. Thus, this portion of the VOG - Patents functions similarly to the current USPTO Web Patent Database. The VOG - Patents would present the information in a different format than the paper publication because the USPTO Web Patent Database provides bibliographic information, full-text, and full images of each patent while the paper publication provides only one figure and one claim for most patents. For those who need fast access to particular sections or documents, the VOG - Patents would provide convenient browsing and navigation capabilities through each weekly issue of the OG- Patents. C. Other Proposed Electronic Media of the OG - Patents in a single file For those requiring the entire weekly issue of the OG - Patents, the USPTO is considering providing a single file containing the entire issue on CD-ROM or via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for a fee. The information would be in a page-composed electronic format, either in Adobe PostScript or Adobe PDF. Written Comments Written comments or questions should be addressed to the attention of Karin L. Tyson, Senior Legal Advisor, by facsimile at (703) 308-6916, by e-mail to karin.tyson@uspto.gov, or by mail addressed to: Box Comments - Patents, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Washington, D.C. 20231. The USPTO prefers to receive comments via e-mail. If comments are submitted by mail, the USPTO would prefer that the comments be submitted in plain text on a DOS-formatted 3 1/2-inch diskette accompanied by a paper copy. Telephone questions concerning this notice should be directed to Karin Tyson, by telephone at (703) 306-3159. To be assured of consideration, written comments must be received on or before August 31, 2000. The comments will be available for public inspection at the Office of Patent Legal Administration, Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, located at Room 3-C23 of Crystal Plaza 4, 2201 South Clark Place, Arlington, Virginia, 22202, and will be available through anonymous FTP via the Internet (address: ftp.uspto.gov or ftp://ftp.uspto.gov/). Since comments will be made available for public inspection, information that is not desired to be made public, such as an address or phone number, should not be included in the comments. May 24, 2000 DENNIS SHAW Chief Information Officer