To: PIUG
Re: Report to Congress on the Removal of Classified Paper from the
USPTO Public Search Facilities
I think this may be of particular interest to the US members of the
list. An extract of the report is reproduced below. The full report is
available at
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/comments/epubsearch/repcngrs.pd
f
<http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/comments/epubsearch/repcngrs.p
df> .
Regards
Rodney Cruise
rodney.cruise@ipmenu.com <mailto:rodney.cruise@ipmenu.com>
IP Menu - www.ipmenu.com <http://www.ipmenu.com>
Extract
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Report to Congress on the Removal of Classified Paper
>From the USPTO's Public Search Facilities
July 24, 2002
SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) plans to
eliminate the classified paper copies of issued patents and registered
trademarks from its
public search facilities and to transition to electronic patent and
trademark information
collections. The USPTO has determined that paper patent and trademark
registration
collections are no longer needed for public reference due to the
availability of mature and
reliable electronic search systems in its public search facilities. The
USPTO plans to
cease support for the collections effective July 26, 2002, and begin
transfer or disposal
actions effective August 26, 2002.
Section 41(i)(1) of Title 35, United States Code (U.S.C.), requires the
USPTO to
maintain for use by the public, collections of United States patents,
foreign patent
documents, and United States trademark registrations arranged to permit
search for and
retrieval of information. See 35 U.S.C. 41(i)(1). Section 4804(d)(1) of
the American
Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA), amended 35 U.S.C. 41(i)(1) to
provide the
USPTO the option of maintaining these documents in electronic form in
lieu of paper.
Section 4804(d)(2) required that the USPTO discontinue maintenance of
its paper
collections only pursuant to notice and the opportunity for public
comment, and only
after submitting a report to the Committees on the Judiciary of the
Senate and
House of Representatives detailing its plan. After providing an initial
opportunity for
public comments on development of the plan, a proposed plan was
published in the
Federal Register on April 9, 2002. A public hearing on the proposed plan
was held on
May 16, 2002, on USPTO's campus. The public comments in response to the
proposed
plan are addressed in this report, and the attached final plan for the
Electronic Public
Search Facility has been revised where appropriate.
Submission of this report and plan, which include a certification that
eliminations of the
paper files will not negatively impact the public, to the Committees on
the Judiciary of
the Senate and the House of Representatives completes the process
required by Section
4804. As discussed herein, the USPTO will transition to an
electronic-only search
system.
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