Portal Private PAIR was successfully deployed on February 23, 2006. In July 2006, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced its intention to retire Legacy Private PAIR at the end of 2006. A published announcement in January 2007 subsequently extended the retirement date one additional year to allow applicants and software developers additional time to adjust office procedures and modify their programs to reflect the current version of Portal PAIR. Most customers have migrated to the Portal Private PAIR system and taken advantage of the new features that are available, and some software developers have modified programs to accommodate for the new software architecture.

Many Legacy Private PAIR infrastructure components, including authentication software, are no longer supported by their vendors. In addition, the operating system that supports Legacy Private PAIR cannot be upgraded without re-hosting the entire system. Continuing to operate with the unsupported operating system will result in a probable failure of Certification and Accreditation as required by OMB Circular A-130, Appendix III. (For more information on Security Certification and Accreditation of Federal Information Systems, refer to http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-37/SP800-37-final.pdf.) Having completed a comprehensive assessment of the management, operational, and technical factors, the USPTO plans to discontinue the availability of Legacy Private PAIR as scheduled, effective December 31, 2007.

Portal Private PAIR offers applicants many improvements including XML data download options. An XML file may be downloaded containing an extensive list of bibliographic data for single applications; users can obtain a list of applications with status changes; and a list of outgoing correspondence and reference documents is also available. Each of the XML download files has W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) schema files available for download from the USPTO.

Other improvements only available in Portal Private PAIR include e-Office Action notifications, real-time self-administration of Attorney Docket numbers, and correspondence address information for Customer Number. When applicants ‘opt-in’ to receive e-mail notifications for new Office Actions, they will no longer receive paper copies of certain types of correspondence by postal mail. Office Actions and reference documents will be available for viewing and download from within the portal version of Private PAIR.

Additional information about the retirement of Legacy Private PAIR is available at http://www.uspto.gov/ebc/pair_faq.htm. Questions or comments regarding the retirement of Legacy Private PAIR can be submitted via e-mail at EBC@uspto.gov or by calling the Patent Electronic Business Center at 1-866-217-9197.

Download [PDF] Reader