[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 216 (Wednesday, November 8, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56320-56322]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-27690]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office


Dissemination of Patent Information

AGENCY: Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of Open Meeting.

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SUMMARY: The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) will hold a public 
meeting to gain input into how it can maximize the potential of its 
information dissemination program. In view of technology changes, 
revisions to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, 
and the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-13), the PTO 
will review existing policies, and will use input from this announced 
meeting to prepare a comprehensive information dissemination plan.

DATES: A meeting will be held on December 15, 1995, at 9:00 a.m.
    Written comments must be submitted on or before December 31, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Address written comments to the Commissioner of Patents and 
Trademarks, Attention: Wesley H. Gewehr, Administrator for Information 
Dissemination, Crystal Park 3, Suite 451, Washington, D.C. 20231, or 
fax to (703) 306-2737, or e-mail to [email protected].
    The meeting will be held in Suite 819 of Crystal Park 1, located at 
2011 Crystal Drive, Arlington, Virginia.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jane S. Myers, Office of Electronic 
Information Products by telephone at (703) 306-2600, by fax at (703) 
306-2737, by e-mail to [email protected], or by mail to U. S. Patent and 
Trademark Office, Office of Electronic Information Products, Crystal 
Park 3, Suite 441, Washington, D.C. 20231.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The meeting will be open to the public, with 
limited seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. Within 
thirty days following the meeting, copies of the minutes of the meeting 
may be obtained from the PTO Home Page (http://www.uspto.gov/), from 
the PTO bulletin board service (PTO BBS) at (703) 305-8950, or from the 
PTO, Office of Electronic Information Products, in Suite 441, Crystal 
Park 3, Arlington, Virginia.
    The PTO last published final guidelines related to information 
dissemination in the Federal Register on Wednesday, May 3, 1989, and in 
the Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office 
on Tuesday, May 30, 1989. The PTO also published a proposed Electronic 
Information Dissemination Policy for public comment in the Official 
Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, 
December 1, 1992. The final guidelines and the proposed policy are 
reprinted below, followed by a description of PTO's information 
dissemination activities.

Electronic Data Dissemination Policies and Guidelines (as published in 
the Federal Register on Wednesday, May 3, 1989, and in the Official 
Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, 
May 30, 1989)

Dissemination in Government Public Search Facilities and Depository 
Libraries

    It is the goal of the PTO to achieve effective, widespread 
dissemination of information concerning patents and Federally 
registered trademarks to all segments of the U.S. public.
    A. The dissemination goal will be accomplished directly by the PTO 
by providing electronic search and retrieval services to the public in 
search facilities located in the PTO, in other facilities which may be 
established by the Government and in Patent and Trademark Depository 
Libraries (PTDLs). PTDLs are Federal, State and local government, 
university or non-profit organization libraries designated by the PTO 
to offer public access to patent collections.
    B. To the extent funding is authorized and appropriated, search and 
retrieval services will be provided in the PTO's search facilities and 
PTDLs either:
    (1) by the PTO, using its own data bases, computers, communications 
equipment, and software, and/or
    (2) by PTO contractors.
    C. Access to commercial data bases that are available to the PTO's 
examiners, for example industry-specific data bases, will be furnished 

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either through an APS workstation or a terminal furnished by data base 
vendors in the PTO public search facilities at commercial rates, 
provided the user has established a commercial account with the data 
base vendor.
    The PTO will not act as an agent for any data base vendor in 
providing training for, assisting in, or collecting fees for the use of 
such commercial data bases.
    D. Services furnished in the PTO public search facilities and in 
PTDLs will be at no cost to the public for access to paper and 
microform records. The costs of accessing PTO owned electronic data 
bases and systems will be recouped from user fees set to recover the 
marginal costs of such services.
    E. The type of service for public search and retrieval, either PTO 
or commercial services, will be chosen based on the method and criteria 
established by the 1983 revision to OMB Circular A-76, entitled 
``Performance of Commercial Activities.''

Distribution of PTO Data for Commercial Dissemination

    F. In addition to B and C above, the PTO will pursue its 
dissemination goal indirectly by encouraging the private sector firms 
in providing such services to the public outside the PTO search 
facilities and PTDLs.
    G. Fees charged for bulk data developed by the PTO will be based on 
the marginal cost of providing such distribution services.
    H. Arrangements will be non-exclusive. Bulk resale of PTO data will 
be permitted subject to the terms of each bulk data sales agreement.
    I. Fees charged to the public for U.S. patent and trademark data 
products will be based on the marginal cost of providing such products.
    J. The PTO will receive non-U.S. electronic patent data through 
exchange agreements with other patent offices and international 
intergovernmental organizations. In general, the PTO will not 
distribute such data, except in conjunction with services that may be 
provided by the PTO or its contractors in the PTO public search 
facilities and PTDLs. Rather, it will seek to have contractual 
arrangements established directly between the organization and the 
commercial data base vendor and will not act as a service agent or 
representative unless there is a special need that cannot be met 
otherwise.

Information Dissemination: General Statement of Principles (as 
published in the Official Gazette of the United States Patent and 
Trademark Office on Tuesday, December 1, 1992)

    The overall mission goal of the United States Patent and Trademark 
Office (PTO) with respect to the issuance of patents derives from 
Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, of the U.S. Constitution which states 
that Congress shall have the power ``To promote the Progress of Science 
and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to * * * Inventors the 
exclusive Right to their * * * Discoveries''. The PTO's mission goal 
with respect to the granting of trademark registrations derives from 
Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3, of the Constitution which states that 
Congress shall have power ``To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, 
and among the several States * * *''.
    As an integral part of its mission, PTO is responsible for assuring 
that patent and trademark information is available to all sectors of 
society that have a need for, and can make use of, the information. 
Through dissemination of such information, PTO provides the means to: 
(1) foster the competent preparation of patent and trademark 
applications; (2) avoid infringement of patent and trademarks; and (3) 
understand the current state of the art as a basis for developing new 
technology.
    As an important part of its information dissemination efforts, PTO 
will strive to have relevant information resources made generally 
available in the United States in the most useful form and at a 
reasonable price. This will include not only its own internal 
information resources but also, to the extent possible, those of other 
industrial property offices throughout the world.
    The private sector has considerable experience in the packaging and 
distribution of information products and services. The PTO will 
continue to work through these private sector firms by facilitating 
their access to PTO's internal information resources and purchasing, 
where appropriate, finished products and services for the PTO's own 
internal use.
    The PTO will continue to rely on the nationwide network of Patent 
and Trademark Depository Libraries as a significant means of providing 
broad public access to its information products and services. PTO will 
work with these libraries to take advantage of the advances in 
information technology.
    Generally, PTO will provide products and services directly to end-
users in those circumstances where: (1) a significant need exists; and 
either (2) a. access to existing internal PTO information resources 
permit major economics in the preparation and distribution of specific 
information products and services through the avoidance of large scale 
duplication of equipment or processing; or b. PTO is in a unique 
position, because of its governmental functions, to provide information 
that is sufficiently timely, accurate, or comprehensive.
    In all cases, PTO will offer its information products and services 
at a price sufficient to recover the marginal costs of its information 
dissemination activities.
    PTO will also work toward standardization and compatibility among 
various patent and trademark related information products and services 
available in the marketplace to enhance their overall usefulness to 
both the intellectual property and research and development 
communities.

Current PTO Information Dissemination Activities

    As part of its mission, the PTO is required to disseminate the 
information in the patents it grants and in the trademarks it 
registers. The PTO carries out this mission by making information 
available in its public search facilities located in Arlington, VA and 
in PTDLs located throughout the country. The PTO provides a variety of 
information products and services, including on-line access to data 
bases, data on magnetic tapes, CD-ROM products, and copies of patents, 
trademarks and related documents.
    PTDLs and local search facilities provide public access to PTO 
information using paper and microform products, and through on-line 
access to internal data bases. The Patent Search Room offers access to 
the Automated Patent System's Text Search (APS-Text) and to Classified 
Search and Image Retrieval (APS-CSIR). PTDLs, who subscribe to the 
automated system, provide APS-Text to their patrons. Patrons of the 
Trademark Search Library have access to the Automated Trademark 
System's X-Search and to the Trademark Reporting and Monitoring (TRAM) 
System.
    In order to expand the range of products and services offered at 
PTDLs, the PTO has established a business partnership with libraries 
located in Sunnyvale, California, and Detroit, Michigan. These partner 
PTDLs offer the following expanded products and services: (1) on-line 
access to APS-Text and APS-CSIR, (2) Video Conferencing capability 
between patent examiners at USPTO and current and potential applicants, 
(3) electronic ordering of patent documents.
    The PTO maintains the PTO BBS and a World Wide Web site on the 
Internet to provide information about products, services and current 
activities. Internet access to the PTO BBS is available 

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through FedWorld (National Technical Information Service). The PTO BBS 
contains current patent bibliographic data, searchable for the most 
recent thirteen weeks. The Web site contains the images and searchable 
text for patents relating to AIDS research.
    PTO offers electronic information products on various media, 
including magnetic tape and Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM). The 
PTO makes available machine-readable copies (on magnetic tape) of its 
patent and trademark data bases to customers who pay a fee based on the 
cost of preparing and distributing the tapes. The customers who 
purchase the data are primarily large-scale retailers of on-line data 
base services who in turn provide this data to thousands of customers.
    The PTO makes extensive use of CD-ROM technology to disseminate its 
information. Products are available for use, free of charge, in PTO 
search facilities and at all PTDLs, and may be purchased by the public. 
Four patent text products and three trademark text products, sold as 
annual subscriptions, are updated bimonthly or quarterly. USAPat, sold 
as an annual subscription and provided as two or three CD-ROMs per 
week, contains the images of all patents as they issue weekly.
    Another important way of disseminating patent and trademark 
information to customers is through the Patent and Trademark Copy Sales 
(PTCS) system. Using this system, the PTO can fulfill requests for 
paper copies of patents and trademarks in a timely fashion.
    Beginning in November 1995, PTO will make additional patent 
information available on the Internet at no charge to the public. This 
new service will be available via the PTO home page (http://
www.uspto.gov/), and will offer approximately twenty years of 
searchable patent bibliographic text data (1.68 million documents 
covering 1976 through 1995). All information contained on the front 
page of a patent, excluding drawings, will be searchable and 
retrievable.

Conclusion

    Using the input gathered from the announced meeting and the written 
comments, the PTO will analyze the existing information dissemination 
program in light of the new and existing technologies, the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995, and OMB Circular A-130. The PTO will then 
redraft its policy and publish it for comment prior to finalizing it.

    Dated: November 2, 1995.
Bruce A. Lehman,
Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of Patents and 
Trademarks.
[FR Doc. 95-27690 Filed 11-7-95; 8:45 am]
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