Searching Patents and Trademarks

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE PUBLIC SEARCH FACILITY (PSF)

SEARCHING PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS

VOL. XI No. 2, May 2010

Public User Meetings are held the third Wednesday of every month at 2 p.m. Meeting notices and minutes are available by linking to Products and Services from the USPTO home page at www.uspto.gov. Send topic suggestions for future newsletters to psf@uspto.gov.

Search Facilities

• Operations
• News
• Personnel
  

 

2010 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY

Plans are underway to conduct the 2010 Public Search Facility Customer Satisfaction Survey from May 24 - June 4, 2010. This survey provides you with an opportunity to let us know how satisfied you are with the facility’s patent and trademark information collections, services and products.   The survey is designed to only take a few minutes to complete and your input is anonymous.  A completed survey form may be deposited in one of three sealed boxes located at each of the three service desks.. As in years past, a survey results report will be published.

RESEARCH ASSISTANCE

The USPTO Public Search Facility is open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Research assistance is offered between the hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.  Self-service access to all information and all facility equipment is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

WRIGHT BROTHERS NATIONAL MEMORIAL UPDATED

While visiting the Wright Brothers National Memorial in North Carolina, public searcher Dan Wittels noticed a NASA exhibit plaque that read the “the Patent Office usually issues only one patent for every 1,000 applications they receive”.  Mr. Wittels thought this statistic was misleading and expressed his concern to the U.S. Patent and Trademark (USPTO) Office of Public Affairs.  Dan noted that visitors to the Wright Brothers National Memorial who read this mistaken exhibit text might be discouraged from filing patent applications   The USPTO Office of Public Affairs contacted both the National Park Service and NASA to make them aware of the misleading text. Thanks to Mr. Wittels, the updated NASA exhibit recently installed in celebration of Wilbur Wright’s birthday on April 16^th does not include this statistical error.

 

 Search Collections

• Digital
• Print
• Microfilm
  

 

TWO NEW DICTIONARIES AVAILABLE

To assist you in formulating search queries we have added two new dictionaries to the Public Search Facility technical reference book collection.  You will find these two updated publications on labeled shelving opposite the first floor reading tables. Please ask a search facility staff member for assistance in locating these new references or any other technical reference.

• Black’s Law Dictionary, 8th edition
• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition,
  

 

RELOCATION OF BOUND VOLUME COLLECTIONS

Starting in May and going through July 2010, Public Search Facility staff will be relocating five bound volume collections to different book shelving units within the search facility.  This action is being taken to create additional shelving space to accommodate the growth of the two Trademark bound volume collections the Trademark Register and Trademark Official Gazettes.  The collections will be shifted as follows:  Trademark Register volumes (shifted within current location); Patent Official Gazettes (moved to the area near the card catalog collection); Trademark Official Gazettes (shifted into the low shelving at the front of the search facility); and U.S. Patent Quarterly volumes, the Patent Decisions and the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals Reports (shifted to low shelving at the front of the search facility).  Temporary signs will be posted that will include information to locate the collections during this transition period.  Permanent signs will be placed on shelving units at the end of the collection relocation project.

 

Search Topics

• Hints
• Results
• Reminders
  

 

NOTATIONS WITHIN PATENTS ON EAST 

The “Pagemark” feature on EAST provides the ability to create notes concerning a particular page(s) of a patent.   To begin conduct a search and open up the results in a browser.  Make sure the patent image is the active window by clicking on it.  Hit the forward slash “/” key at the top of the numeric keypad.  This opens up a comment field at the bottom of the screen that can be used for notes. Comment fields can be added to multiple pages or patents by using the forward slash key.

All the patents and pages marked can be later reviewed by going to “Pagemark Summary of all Documents” under the “Tools” options.  The grid box that opens can then be copied into Notepad and e-mailed from your text transfer list.  For more details about the Pagemark feature, check out the available handout in the What’s New! Rack at the On-Line desks.

 

Public Information Services
United States Patent and Trademark Office
P. O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450