February 13, 2004

Trademark Daily XML Files - Weekly Status Report

Inquiries can be made to: Ed Johnson at Ed.Johnson@uspto.gov - (703) 306-2621 or Marva Dubar at Marva.Dubar@uspto.gov - (703) 305-1669 or sent to OEIP@uspto.gov.

The following is a status update on new inquiries and outstanding items.

New This Week:

There are no new inquiries in this Weekly Status Report.

There are 17 outstanding inquiries dating back to June 6, 2003.

*6 have been resolved. Reference (1), (5), (11), (12), (15) and (16).

*3 remain open with any current action to these inquiries being evaluated. Reference Inquiries (7), (8) and (17).

*5 are being analyzed to ensure that valid UTF-8 characters are being used and corrected provided by March 30, 2004. Reference Inquiries (2), (3), (9), (10) and (13).

*1 pertaining to the TNSF entries present in the apb040120 and the apb040121 files were erroneous/premature and will be corrected the week ending 2/20/2004. Reference Inquiry – 01/20/2004: (6)

*1 pertaining to invalid data appearing in an application has been directed to the appropriate trademark area and a status will be reported February 20, 2004. Reference Inquiry – 02/06/2004: (4)

*1 pertaining to addition line breaks in the TTAB files requires a DTD change. Reference Inquiry - 7/14/2003: (14).

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Inquiries that have been resolved will have the resolution in black, bold, italicized and underlined.

Any inquiries that require additional research and/or response are considered outstanding inquiries and will appear in red, bold and italicized.

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Outstanding Inquiries:

Inquiry – 02/03/2004:(1)

In the status report on 12 Dec, the following statement was made: Note: Party-Type-Codes used prior to November 2, 2003 will be changed.

Could you explain what that means please? Will there be some across the board change of all party type codes?

There are 2 sets of Party-Type-Codes. One set for transactions dated prior to November 2, 2003 and one set for transactions dated on or after November 2, 2003.

Reference the Trademark-Applications-Documentation-v.11.doc under Trademark Daily XML Documentation "B" of the TDXF DTD's, Documentation, and Sample Data page.

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Inquiry – 02/05/2004:(2)

Characters such as diacritical marks appear not to be handled properly. In the daily file dated 20040120 two examples (SN 79000127 and SN 7900022) the umlauted lu (ü) and the circumflexed a (â) that appear in the city names Zürich and Neuchâtel are not provided as ISO entity variables "ü" and "â" respectively. Meanwhile, other characters, such as punctuation, are rendered correctly, e.g. the ampersand "&" is sent as "&".

All 3 Trademark Daily DTD’s are being analyzed to ensure that valid UTF-8 characters are being used and corrected by March 30, 2004.

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Inquiry – 02/06/2004:(3)

While processing XML File xml\040205\ap040205.xml an invalid UTF-8 character (Unicode: 0x4) was found in the element content of the document.

All 3 Trademark Daily DTD’s are being analyzed to ensure that valid UTF-8 characters are being used and corrected by March 30, 2004.

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Inquiry – 02/06/2004:(4)

Invalid data appears in the following applications:

<serial-number>78204990</serial-number>
. <case-file-owner>
<composed-of-statement> ƒ @Š `ù</composed-of-statement>
<entry-number>01</entry-number>
<nationality>XPX</nationality>
<name-1>Gilead Sciences, Inc.</name-1>
<party-type>10</party-type>
<address-1>333 Lakeside Drive</address-1>
<city>Foster City</city>
<state>CA</state>
<postcode>94404</postcode>
<legal-entity-type-code>03</legal-entity-type-code>
</case-file-owner>

This has been forwarded to the appropriate trademark area an updated status will be reported 2/20/2004.

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Inquiry – 01/26/2004 (initially received 01/14/2004):(5)

1. Cropped Images for paper applications filings: Is there any estimate as to when we may be receiving these images in the next day supplemental file?

A supplemental file to the 24 hour box was placed into daily production February 10, 2004 with the cropped images dated February 9, 2004

A retrospective file of cropped images since November 13, 2003 is available on CD-R.

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Inquiry – 01/20/2004:(6)

In the apb040120 and apb040121 there is a new type-code included in the case-file-statement section -- it is TNSF. Can you tell us what this is?

1. TNSF is a new type-code that identifies Transformation Information. When a birth arrives in the US from the International Bureau (IB) a US serial number is assigned making the International Registration Number no longer valid. The applicant elects to have the application become a US National Application. Thus the transformation. Reference the type-code in the Trademark-Applications-Documentation-v.12.doc under Trademark Daily XML Documentation "B" of the TDXF DTD's, Documentation, and Sample Data page.

2. The TNSF entries present in the apb040120 and the apb040121 files were erroneous/premature and will be corrected the week ending 2/20/2004.

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Inquiry – 11/12/2003:(7)

1. Using the Serial Number 78244966 as an example, this application has made a request for extension under Madrid Protocol to another country. Out on TARR you have the following Madrid Protocol Information:

USPTO Control Number: Z1230001
International Registration Number:
International Registration Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
Original Filing Date with USPTO: 2003-11-02
Priority Claimed: No
Date of Section 67 Priority Claim: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
International Registration Status: Application For
International Registration Certified
Date of International Registration Status: 2003-11-03
International Registration Renewal Date: (DATE NOT
AVAILABLE)
Date of Automatic Protection: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
Date International Registration Cancelled: (DATE NOT
AVAILABLE)
Date of Last Irregularity: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
First Refusal: No

Will we be receiving this information on an existing application/registration that has requested protection outside the U.S.? If so when and where? Will the IB Update the information that states (DATE NOT AVAILABLE) with the appropriate information? and will that then be received in the daily feeds?

There appear to be three fields listed here that are not included in the Applications DTD v0.10 -- they are USPTO Control Number, Original Filing Date with USPTO, and Date of Last Irregularity. And the last issue with this particular Serial Number, have you sent this record to WIPO yet, as it is not on the WIPO's Madrid Express database?

Responses for this inquiry are being coordinated with Trademark Operations and action to this inquiry is being re-evaluated.

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Inquiry – 10/31/2003:(8)

Correspondent and owner information are provided.

It is requested that the telephone number, the fax number and email address, if available information, for the correspondent and owner be provided.

Current action to this inquiry is being evaluated.

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Inquiry – 10/9/2003:(9)

The TTAB daily file continues to contain illegal characters. I thought this issue would be resolved by now. Here is an excerpt from my log: 2003-10-09 02:09:14 tt031008.xml error: Parse error occurred - An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0x12) was found in the element ...

All 3 Trademark Daily DTD’s are being analyzed to ensure that valid UTF-8 characters are being used and corrected by March 30, 2004.

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Inquiry – 9/17/2003:(10)

All the XML files are supposed to be in UTF-8 format.

The following file TTAB tt030701.xml has ASCII value 146 twice in the following line.

ADMIN</charge-to-employee-name><status-update-date>20021008</status-
update-date><status-code>9</status-code><party-
information><party><identifier>260024</identifier><role-code>D</role-
code><name>PAT O'BRIEN'S BAR, INC.</name><property-
information><property><identifier>245280</identifier>

The single quotes being sent to us are not in UTF-8 format.

This type of error can also be found in other TTAB xml files:

tt030515.xml
tt030711.xml

This is brought up because the TTAB files are still being produced with invalid characters

All 3 Trademark Daily DTD’s are being analyzed to ensure that valid UTF-8 characters are being used and corrected by March 30, 2004.

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Inquiry – 9/05/2003:(11)

We have noted some discrepancies between the weekly text files and the daily XML files. The following is a case in point.

In the weekly text files Serial Number 78102397 (ASPEN) appeared in the TKAB section of the wt030805.txt, wt030812.txt and wt030826.txt files. (See attachment, weekly.txt, for excerpts of this record from these 3 files). The last file (wt030826.txt) shows that the TTAB status is 009(Terminated) and the decision code is 803 (Board's Decision: Dismissed w/ Prejudice).

In the daily XML files the last TTAB update for this record was in the tt030801.xml daily file with a <status-code> of 2 (pending) and a<status-update-date> of 20021223. No further TTAB updates were received for that record since that file. (See attached file, tt030801_78102397.xml, which is an excerpt from tt030801.xml file showing this record.)

It seems that this record slipped through the cracks in the daily xml updates.

We've found cases where some records are more up-to-date via the xml files, and others which are more up-to-date via the weekly text files. If a record is updated via the weekly text file, shouldn't we expect that same record in the xml files during that same week? In general, how soon after a record is updated by the PTO should we see that record in the xml daily files?

Electronic filings are updated to the USPTO TRAM database 10 to 15 days after being received and validated.

Paper filings are updated to TRAM 15 to 30 days after received through the postal service and validated.

Applications are provided in the daily XML files 1 to 3 days after being updated to TRAM.

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Inquiry – 8/01/2003:(12)

The XML for the proceedings 76186764-EXT and 76186764-EXA do not match the USPTO Board Information System Index (BISX) online system (http://bisxext.uspto.gov/).

The USPTO BISX system shows 2 prosecution entries for 76186764-EXT while in the XML there are 8 <prosecution-entry> entries.

The USPTO BISX system shows 6 prosecution entries for 76186764-EXA while in the XML there are 8 <prosecution-entry> entries.

The <prosecution-history> entries for these TTAB records seem to have been merged in the XML generation.

The USPTO BISX system was updated so that the BISX system and the XML daily files match with the same information.

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Inquiry - 7/16/2003:(13)

Here is some more information/errors....

Processing XML File ==> xml\030620\tt030620.xml
start:: Wed Jul 16 12:05:31 EDT 2003
[Fatal Error] tt030620.xml:145:67181: An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0x12)
was found in the element content of the document.
error: Parse error occurred - An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0x12) was
found in the element content of the document.

[Fatal Error] tt030621.xml:144:390195: An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0x12) was found in the element content of the document.
error: Parse error occurred - An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0x12) was found in the element content of the document.

Processing XML File ==> xml\030625\tt030625.xml
start:: Wed Jul 16 12:14:58 EDT 2003
[Fatal Error] tt030625.xml:141:728318: An invalid XML character (Unicode:
0x12) was found in the element content of the document.
error: Parse error occurred - An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0x12) was
found in the element content of the document.

Processing XML File ==> xml\030626\tt030626.xml
start:: Wed Jul 16 13:05:46 EDT 2003
[Fatal Error] tt030626.xml:143:292294: An invalid XML character (Unicode:
0x12) was found in the element content of the document.
error: Parse error occurred - An invalid XML character (Unicode: 0x12) was
found in the element content of the document.
All of the characters 0 through 31 and character 127 are nonprinting control
characters. With the exception of characters 09, 10, and 13, (Ox09,
Ox0A, and Ox0D) the others may NOT appear anywhere in an XML document.

All 3 Trademark Daily DTD’s are being analyzed to ensure that valid UTF-8 characters are being used and corrected by March 30, 2004

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Inquiry - 7/14/2003:(14)

Is it possible to put in more line breaks into this file. The file is unable to be loaded into a normal text editor due to the line lengths (this is not true for the other xml files). Here is an example:

tt030701.xml, length of the longest line: 1309721, new line count: 252

The TTAB DTD has been corrected to accommodate more line breaks. Trademark-TTAB-v0.10-2004-02-13 has been placed on the TDXF DTD's, Documentation, and Sample Data page for review. It will be placed into production Tuesday February 24, 2004 with the daily XML data dated Monday, February 23, 2004.

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Inquiry - 7/03/2003:(15)

Poorly formatted addresses in XML

You are trying to fit unstructured data into a structured format, I propose you add an address-2 tag to hold the data in cases like this.

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>357358</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>DOUGLAS W SPRINKLE</name>
<orgname>GIFFORD KRASS GROH SPRINKLE ANDERSON & C</orgname> THIS
WAS CUT OFF SHOULD BE

<orgname>GIFFORD KRASS GROH SPRINKLE ANDERSON &amp; CITKOWSKI, P.C.</orgname>

<address-1>280 N OLD WOODWARD SUITE 400</address-1>
<city>BIRMINGHAM MICHIG</city>
<state>AN</state> THIS IS THE TAIL END OF THE ABOVE TAG
<postcode>48009</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>384315</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>EDGAR A. ZARINS</name>
<orgname>MASCO CORPORATION</orgname>
<address-1>21001 VAN BORN ROAD</address-1>
<city>TAYLOR MICHIG</city>
<state>AN</state> THIS IS THE TAIL END OF THE ABOVE TAG
<postcode>48180</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>387621</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>JOHN R GARBER</name>
<orgname>COOPER &amp; DUNHAM LLP</orgname>
<address-1>1185 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS</address-1>
<city>NEW YORK NEW YO</city>
<state>RK</state> THIS IS THE TAIL END OF THE ABOVE TAG
<postcode>10036</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>367755</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>STEVEN A. GIBSON</name>
<orgname>SANTORO DRIGGS WALCH KEARNEY ET AL</orgname>
<address-1>400 S FOURTH ST 3RD FL</address-1>
<city>LAS VEGAS NEVA</city>
<state>DA</state> THIS IS THE TAIL END OF THE ABOVE TAG
<postcode>89101</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

You aren't validating the state code field.

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>292989</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>SALLY M. ABEL</name>
<orgname>FENWICK & WEST LLP</orgname>
<address-1>TWO PALO ALTO SQUARE</address-1>
<city>PALTO ALTO</city>
<state>C</state> INVALID STATE CODE
<postcode>94306</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>298457</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>KRISTI A. ZENTNER</name>
<orgname>FAFINSKI AND WALLRICH, P.A.</orgname>
<address-1>STE. 100 DUNNE MANSION 337 OAK GROVE STREET</address-1>
<city>MINNEAPOLIS</city>
<state>M</state> INVALID STATE CODE
<postcode>55403</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

What code list are these from?

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>391698</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>SUSAN UPTON DOUGLASS</name>
<orgname>FROSS ZELNICK LEHRMAN &amp; ZISSU, P.C.</orgname>
<address-1>866 UNITED NATIONS PLAZA AT FIRST AVENUE &amp; 48TH
STREET</address-1>
<city>NEW YORK</city>
<state>N7</state> INVALID STATE CODE
<postcode>10017</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>369899</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>PETER L. COSTAS</name>
<orgname>PEPE &amp; HAZARD LLP</orgname>
<address-1>225 ASYLUM STREET</address-1>
<city>HARTFORD</city>
<state>CN</state> INVALID STATE CODE
<postcode>06103</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

<proceeding-address>
<identifier>386393</identifier>
<type-code>C</type-code>
<name>ROLAND W. BAGGOTT III</name>
<orgname>THE BAGGOTT LAW OFFICES, L.L.C.</orgname>
<address-1>1316 CHRISTOPHER COURT</address-1>
<city>METATRIE</city>
<state>LO</state> INVALID STATE CODE
<postcode>70001-3804</postcode>
</proceeding-address>

Addresses originally stored in a continual string are indiscriminately parsed into the new address format, which consist of 6 address elements: <name>, <orgname>, <address-1>, <city>, <state>, and <postcode>.

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Inquiry - 6/09/2003:(16)

After analyzing the most recent Trademark Daily XML TTAB DTD related data files, we found the following issues:

1. The <filing-date> field (which is part of the <proceeding-entry> tag) does not always have the correct value. Here are some examples of this issue:

a. For the Proceeding Number 92042024, which can be found in last Tuesday's (June 3) TWTF file, the value of the DT-FIL field (which is located in the TWTF TTAB record) is "20030310". In the TTAB data file called TT030529.xml, which contains the most up-to-date version of this TTAB Proceeding, the value of the <filing-date> field is "20030529". This is incorrect since this Proceeding was filed on March 10th, 2003.

b. For the Proceeding Number 92042025, which can be found in last Tuesday's (June 3) TWTF file, the value of the DT-FIL field (which is located in the TWTF TTAB record) is "20030430". In the TTAB data file called TT030529.xml, which contains the most up-to-date version of this TTAB Proceeding, the value of the <filing-date> field is "20030529". This is incorrect since this Proceeding was filed on April 30th, 2003.

c. For the Proceeding Number 92042026, which can be found in last Tuesday's (June 3) TWTF file, the value of the DT-FIL field (which is located in the TWTF TTAB record) is "20030424". In the TTAB data file called TT030529.xml, which contains the most up-to-date version of this TTAB Proceeding, the value of the <filing-date> field is "20030529". This is incorrect since this Proceeding was filed on April 24th, 2003.

2. The <status-update-date> field (which is part of the <proceeding-entry> tag) does not always have the most up-to-date value after the value of the <status-code> field (which is also part of the <proceeding-entry> tag) changes. Here are some examples of this issue:

a. For the Proceeding Number 91154190, which can be found in last Tuesday's (June 3) TWTF file, the value of the DT-STAT field (which is located in the TWTF TTAB record) is "20030529" and the value of the STAT field (which is also located in the TWTF TTAB record) is "9" (Terminated). In the TTAB data file called TT030528.xml, the value of the <status-update-date> field is "20030103" and the value of the <status-code> field is "2" (Pending) for this TTAB Proceeding. In the TTAB data file called TT030529.xml, which contains the most up-to-date version of this TTAB Proceeding, the value of the <status-code> field is changed to "9" (Terminated), but the value of the <status-update-date> field remains the same ("20030103") for some reason. Instead, this field should have the value "20030529" just like in last Tuesday's (June 3) TWTF file.

b. For the Proceeding Number 91154593, which can be found in last Tuesday's (June 3) TWTF file, the value of the DT-STAT field (which is located in the TWTF TTAB record) is "20030529" and the value of the STAT field (which is also located in the TWTF TTAB record) is "9" (Terminated). In the TTAB data file called TT030528.xml, the value of the <status-update-date> field is "20030122" and the value of the <status-code> field is "2"
(Pending) for this TTAB Proceeding. In the TTAB data file called TT030529.xml, which contains the most up-to-date version of this TTAB Proceeding, the value of the <status-code> field is changed to "9" (Terminated), but the value of the <status-update-date> field remains the same ("20030122") for some reason. Instead, this field should have the value "20030529" just like in last Tuesday's (June 3) TWTF file.

A correction has been implemented that will apply to newly created or modified/updated records. Previous records that have not encountered a need to be updated will have to be addressed on a record by record basis as they are identified.

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Inquiry - 6/06/2003:(17)

In reviewing the country codes for each of the 3 XML files and discovered the following

*Trademark-Applications XML

Uses 3 digit code from TWTF file

*Trademark-Assignments XML

Uses no codes at all, they expand all codes (Spelling out countries)

*Trademark-Proceedings XML

Uses officially designated country as prescribed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standard ST.3

This inquiry has been forwarded to the Office of Data Management.

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If you have any questions or need additional information please contact one of the following individuals:

Ed Johnson	Marva Dubar
Information Products Division	Information Dissemination
Data Dissemination Branch	Systems Division
(703) 306-2621	(703) 305-1669
(703) 306-2737 Fax	(703) 308-5164 Fax
Ed.Johnson@uspto.gov	Marva.Dubar@uspto.gov