Cassis Currents NO. 16
May 2002

EXECUTIVE FOR INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICES NAMED

Kay Melvin was appointed to the new position of Executive for Information Dissemination Services in the USPTO’s Office of the Chief Information Officer in April. Kay will be responsible for revitalizing the information dissemination plan for the USPTO. She brings with her a diverse background of online searching, management, sales, contracting, and knowledge of computer systems.

She will manage the newly created Information Dissemination Services Organization, made up of the Information Products Division, Office of Public Records, and the Public Search Services Division, which includes the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries and public search facilities at the USPTO. "With the Internet and other recent changes in the information world, this offers us an opportunity to look and see how we can create better products and services for our customers," Kay stated.

Kay is no stranger to the USPTO; she held a variety of positions here from 1985 through June 2000. She returns to the USPTO after almost two years with the Economic and Statistics Administration (ESA) within the Department of Commerce, where she served as the Chief Information Officer for ESA and Director of STAT-USA. In this position, Kay was responsible for the dissemination and support of information products and services in support of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988.

In her previous time with the USPTO, Kay worked in the Scientific and Technical Information Center (STIC) and the Search and Information Resources Administration (SIRA). During her years with STIC, Kay was responsible for the creation of the ABSS database that automated biotechnology sequence searching. She was also instrumental in the growth of STIC, leading the efforts to establish the Biotechnology/Chemical Library and the Electronic Information Center. While with SIRA, Kay served as the liaison to the OCIO and managed many important automation projects including the Patent Image Capture System (PICS), Patent Application Location and Monitoring (PALM), Electronic Filing System (EFS), Patent Application Capture and Retrieval (PACR), and EAST and WEST, the patent examiners’ search systems.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Kay earned a B.A. degree in Social Science from Elon College. She received a Masters in Library Science from the University of Maryland as well as a certificate in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Public Administration. Kay enjoys all water sports, snow skiing and is an avid runner. She is married and has a 21-year-old daughter who recently graduated from college. The family is rounded out with a Dalmatian and a Yorkshire terrier.

We are pleased to welcome Kay back to the USPTO!

NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT - ELECTRONIC OFFICIAL GAZETTE (eOG) FOR PATENTS

The Official Gazette for Patents is going electronic! In the next few months, the Electronic Products Branch will begin publishing the eOG as a weekly CD-ROM product. Soon after, it will appear on the USPTO Website on issue day.

The eOG will resemble the paper version of the Official Gazette as much as possible but with new enhanced features. These new features include the ability to browse by classification, patent number, or type of patent. Also, the names in the patentee index will be linked to the patent to enable quick access to the patentee’s patent. Geographical information will be available by both state and country.

Simultaneous publication of the OG paper version will continue until further notice. Watch for further updates. A beta disc will be sent to the PTDLs sometime in June.

25th ANNUAL PATENT AND TRADEMARK DEPOSITORY LIBRARY TRAINING SEMINAR

During the week of March 17-22, 92 representatives from 77 Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDLs) attended the 25th Annual PTDL Training Seminar held in Crystal City, Virginia. Special guests included representatives from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, the Finnish Patent Office, and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China. Stephen Adams, of Magister Ltd. in the UK, and two PTDL alumni were also in attendance.

Once again, Cassis2 hands-on training sessions were offered. This year the focus of the 3-hour training sessions was on the more advanced features of Cassis2. Some of these features included printing, saving, exporting, and sorting search results, and creating custom displays. In addition, customizing the Cassis2 interface, use of the search field indexes and session history, and searching the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) were covered.

Session instructors were from the PTDL Program Office and Electronic Products Branch (EPB) staffs. Several of the PTDL representatives provided expert assistance to the instructors and attendees.

We again asked the trainees to evaluate the Cassis2 user interface and as always, we received great feedback. These training sessions have always been valuable to the EPB staff in the past. We have already begun sifting through the evaluation forms and discussing how we can implement the suggestions. There will be a report on the progress in the next issue of Cassis Currents.

Overall, the evaluations were quite favorable and representatives were impressed with the advanced features of Cassis2. Several of them were glad to be reminded of the many powerful things that Cassis2 can do. Photos of the training sessions are highlighted throughout this issue.

Figure 1 Ted Cebula is Assisted by Instructor Donna Cooper

Cassis2 TIPS - CREATING A CUSTOM DISPLAY STYLE WITH DocDW VOLUME IDs

You can use the custom display style feature of Cassis2 to create a customized results list of document numbers and DocDW volume IDs. This list can then be used to pull the corresponding discs that contain the documents.

After performing your search, create a custom display style from the View menu/Display Styles option. You are able to select any search/display fields that you want, perhaps just the document number and volume ID. You might also want to create a bit more of a customized list with title, assignee name or owner, inventor name, and issue, registration, or publication date. Displaying a bit more information in your printout may assist you in knowing which discs you want to look at first.

The Sort feature would further customize the list. Click on the Sort tab and sort the list by any of the search/display fields, including classification, assignee or owner, or title or mark. The default display is by issue or registration date with most recent listed first. Now, print your documents displaying the custom style in your sorted order.

DocDW FAQ

Q: How can I print a list of documents with the volume IDs from USAPat, USAApp, or USAMark?

A: You can print a variety of lists using the DocDW List menu. These lists include Documents Found, Documents Not Found, and Documents Not Printed/Exported.

To print a list, you must first import document numbers or select document numbers from the cumulative index. Go to the List menu and select the type of list you want to print from the available options. A window will open with the document numbers and several option buttons on the right. This window is shown below in Figure 2. To print, press the print button. It is also possible to save or copy the list into word processing software. Each of these options also saves the date and time of your search.

The printed list can then be used to pull the discs to view the individual documents. If you copy the list, it will look like this:

DOCUMENTS FOUND LISTING

08-May-02 04:19 PM

0000010 USP001

3479861 USP191

4555389 USP270

5899384 US_99_18A

6024150 USP2001w51

6378132 USP2002w17

Figure 2 DocDW Documents Found Window

CHANGE TO PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS ASSIGN

There has been a change in the information contained on the Patents and Trademarks ASSIGN disc, beginning with our 2002 January issue. The related patent number field information is no longer available.

In December, our source of patent assignments data changed. This was the outcome of a modernization of the assignment databases. As a result, the related patent information is no longer available and this change has forced us to eliminate this field from the Patents and Trademarks ASSIGN product. The previous disc, 2001 November, is the last disc to contain this data.

This information is displayed in patent images on our USAPat product, however it is not searchable. The information is searchable in the Patent Full Text and Image Database on the USPTO Website. The Parent Case Information field contains data that describes prior applications related to the patent. This data appears in the specifications of the patent. The Related U.S. Application Data field also contains data that describes prior applications related to the patent. This data is found on the front page.

Figure 3 Instructor Jim Miller Provides Hands-on Assistance to Leslie Brown and James Bettinger

NEW TRADEMARKS ASSIST DISC TO BE PRODUCED SOON

The EPB staff is currently working on an updated version of the Trademarks ASSIST disc and we are expecting to distribute it in June. This disc will update the disc published in 2001 July.

The new disc will contain the revised editions of the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP) and the Goods and Services Manual. The Trademark Examination Guide and Notes will be added to this disc as well.

In addition, the Trademark Telephone Index, Trademark Statute and Rules (Trademark Act of 1946 and the Rules of Practice), Design Search Code Manual, and Trademarks Trial and Appeal Board Manual of Procedure (TBMP) are also included on Trademarks ASSIST.

All of these files are text searchable and several provide hyper-linked tables of contents to easily "jump" to a specific section of interest. The disc will be available as a single-disc purchase and will sell for $50.

USAPat BACK FILE UPDATE

The seventh shipment of the USAPat back file collection was distributed in early April. The latest set of fifty discs, 301-350, contains patents from 1989 through 1994. Look for the next-to-last shipment in June.

2001 CALENDAR YEAR STATISTICS AVAILABLE ON USPTO WEBSITE

Calendar year statistical reports, including data on patent activity through 2001, are now available on the USPTO Website. These reports are prepared by the Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF) Branch of the Information Products Division.

These reports present calendar year patent activity in a variety of formats and count patents in several ways, including by organization, state and country of origin, and technology class.

A new report, Drill-Down Utility Patent Reports by Technology Class, profiles utility patent activity by organization and geographic region. Updated reports include Drill-Down Utility Patent Reports by State and Country of Origin, which profiles utility patent activity originating from each U.S. state/territory or foreign country and presents patenting activity by organization; Patenting By Organizations Report, 2001, which lists over 400 organizations that received the most utility patents during the calendar year; the U.S. Patent Statistics Chart, a one-page summary table presenting U.S. patent application and grant activity by patent type from 1963 to 2001; and a report entitled U.S. Patent Activity, 1790-2001, which shows annual patent counts since1790.

The reports may be accessed from the USPTO Website using this direct link, http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm.

Figure 4 Cassis2 Training Session Attendees Stephen Adams, Rae Shepherd-Shlechter, Dave Morrison, and Johanna Johnson

Cassis Currents is published by the Electronic Products Branch (EPB) of the Information Products Division (IPD) under the Office of Chief Information Officer at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an agency of the United States Department of Commerce.
Back issues are available on the USPTO Website at http://www.uspto.gov/.
Contact us at:
Electronic Products Branch
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Crystal Park 3, Suite 441
Washington, D.C. 20231
cassis@uspto.gov
Fax: (703)306-2737
Phone: (703)306-2600 or (800)786-9199 (identify yourself as a Cassis subscriber and ask to be transferred to IPD)