United States Patent and Trademark Office OG Notices: 29 April 2003

                  Status of Office of Public Records Services

   The Office of Public Records (OPR) processes and fills orders for both
certified and uncertified copies of Patent and Trademark Office documents
and records assignments and other documents related to title.  This is an
update of actual processing times during the month of March 2003:

Document Services                              Goal                  Actual
                                                                 Processing
                                                                       Time

Certified Documents

Patent Applications-As-Filed                 7 days                 5 days
Patent Related File Wrappers                25 days                23 days*
Patent Copies                               10 days                 4 days
Patent Assignments                          10 days                 5 days
Trademark Applications-As-Filed              7 days                 4 days
Trademark Related File Wrappers             25 days                12 days*
Trademark Assignments                       10 days                 4 days
Trademark Registrations,
   Expedited                                 5 days                 3 days
Trademark Registrations,
   Regular                                  14 days                 4 days

Uncertified Documents

Patent Copies                                5 days                 2 days
Plant Patents                                5 days                 3 days
Patent Assignments                          10 days                 2 days
Patent Related File Wrappers                25 days                25 days*
Trademark Copies                             5 days                 3 days
Trademark Assignments                       10 days                 2 days
Trademark Related File Wrappers             25 days                 9 days*

*Includes turnaround times for files on Official Search and File
Reconstruction.

During the month of March 2003, a total of 15,935 public orders (24,220
copies) were filled and closed, or 4,738 orders more (517 copies more)
than the FY-03 planning number of 11,197 orders (23,703 copies) to be
closed for this month.

Please do not submit "follow-up" or duplicate copies of orders.  Customers
should use the above actual processing time for each product as a guide as
to when they can expect their orders to be completed.  In cases where an
urgent deadline is approaching, contact OPR Customer Service at (703)
308-9726 or 1 (800) 972-6382 for assistance with a particular order.

Customers are encouraged to fax orders for copies directly to the Document
Services Division at (703) 308-9759 and to pay by PTO Deposit Account,
MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover.  Copy orders also may be
placed through the Internet by accessing the PTO home page at www.uspto.gov
and selecting the "Order Copies" option. Information on the status of
pending orders may be obtained by calling (703) 308-9726 or
1 (800) 972-6382 (outside the Washington, DC Metro area), or via E-mail:
dsd@uspto.gov.

ASSIGNMENT SERVICES

The Assignment Services Division is currently mailing recordation notices
for paper documents received in the Office of Public Records on November
27, 2002.  The cycle time to process, record, and mail notices for paper
documents is 120 calendar days.

Recordation notices for assignment documents transmitted electronically to
the Assignment Services Division are current through receipts for
March 28, 2003.  The cycle time to process, record, and return notices for
electronic documents is 1 calendar day.

April 2, 2003                                        PATRICK ROWE, Director
                                                   Office of Public Records