Cassis Currents NO. 19
July 2003

FIRST ELECTRONIC INDEX OF PATENTS AND CUMULATIVE eOG:P PUBLISHED

In May, the Electronics Products Branch proudly issued the first Index of Patents Issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in electronic format. The 2002 Annual Index not only contains the listings of patentee names, it also includes all of the year’s Electronic Official Gazette of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office – Patents (eOG:P) records.

Although the weekly eOG:P did not begin publication until July 2002, the eOG:P team created the records for January through June 2002. Records for these six months were not previously available in electronic format.

Figure 1  eOG:P Disc Label

While a major portion of the paper Annual Index was the patentee name index, this new product includes the patentee name index, as well as cumulative indexes by both classification and geographical location of the first listed inventor. Each index entry has a link that enables users to “jump” to the specific eOG:P record. See Fig. 2 for a look at the patentee index entries.

Figure 2  Patentee Index

The eOG:P records contain bibliographic information, a representative claim, and a drawing (if applicable) of each patent. Fig. 3 displays the eOG:P record that corresponds to the patentee name index entry shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 3  eOG:P Record

This electronic product offers several enhancements over the paper annual index. For example, this one disc provides a “one-stop shop” since it contains the year’s indexes as well as the indexed records in one source.

Other enhancements include:

• A “full patent” button in the upper-left corner of the record display allows the user to jump to the patent in the Patent Full-Text and Image Database on the USPTO web site. (Note: the user must be connected to the Internet to use this feature.) This “full patent” button also appears on the weekly eOG:P discs.
• Each patentee index entry provides a link to the eOG:P record. Full index information, including patent title, is provided in name entries for the first listed inventor. Name entries for joint inventors and assignees, either individuals or companies, provide links to the record, but the patent title is not displayed.
• There are individual patentee indexes by patent type, i.e., utility, design, plant, in addition to the cumulative index regardless of type.
• Patents can also be browsed by classification. Classification schedules are provided in both alphabetical and numerical order.
• The inclusion of geographical information for countries as well as state. The weekly eOG:P also contains this information.

This disc contains a number of other bits of information as well. All Patent and Trademark Office Notices published during 2002 and the Consolidated Listing of Official Gazette Notices Re-Patent and Trademark Office Practices and Procedures are included. The Consolidated Notices contain notices of particular importance published from July 1, 1964 through 2002. The notices are linked to the various indexes provided. There are indexes in alphabetical and numerical order in addition to a table of contents.

There are also listings of the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDLs) and Federal Depository Libraries that receive the Official Gazette and other patent and trademark products. These listings contain links to the individual library’s web site. In addition, a listing of the Foreign Industrial Property Offices and International Entities that receive one or more sets of U.S. patent documents is included.

Statistical information, such as a summary of the number of Patents, Defensive Publications, and Statutory Invention Registrations issued from 1836 through 2002, is also provided.

The Annual Index is published on one DVD-ROM and is available for sale for $300 per copy. Please contact us if you would like to receive more information on ordering this product.

At this time, it is expected that the Annual Index of Patents will continue to be published in paper through 2001 or 2002 to coincide with the paper publication of the Official Gazette.

We have a new mailing address!

As of May 1, 2003, please use the following

address for all correspondence to the

Office of Electronic Information Products

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Office of Electronic Information Products

CPK3, Suite 441

P.O. Box 1450

Alexandria, VA  22313-1450

 

PTDL LIBRARIAN LOCATES PATENT GRANTED TO FAMOUS AMERICAN

As Dawn Rohan searched for Wyoming inventors in the paper annual patentee indexes page-by-page and year-by-year, she came across a gem.  There in 1916 was a listing for patent number D49,949 Design for a Bit, to William F. Cody, of Cody, Wyoming. Cody is otherwise known as “Buffalo Bill.” 

Ms. Rohan is the PTDL Representative from the Wyoming State Library in Cheyenne. After contacting the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, she found that they were unaware of this tidbit of Buffalo Bill lore. She supplied the Center with a copy of the patent. “They discovered examples of the patented item in the museum’s collection and have been able to firm up the dates of manufacture,” Ms. Rohan shared.

Ms. Rohan recently completed the monumental task of locating all of Wyoming’s inventors from 1879 to present and building a searchable database with their names and other information. To visit the database, go to http://cowgirl.state.wy.us/inventors/.

The bibliographic page of Cody’s patent is displayed in Fig.4 and the drawing in Fig. 5. She called finding this patent “a small victory for the PTDL!” Great work, Dawn.

Figure 4  Buffalo Bill’s Patent - #D49,949

Figure 5 Buffalo Bill’s Patent Drawings- #D49,949

eOG:P FAQ

Q. Can I print a single record from the eOG:P?

A. Yes. How you do this depends on the browser that you are using.

Using Internet Explorer, right click on the frame containing the eOG:P record (the right frame). Select “Print” from the pop-up menu.

Using Netscape, click in the frame containing the eOG:P record (the right frame) to activate it. From the File Menu, select “Print Frame.”

Both of these techniques will print the eOG:P record on a single page. The same procedure is used, whether you are using the eOG:P from CD or the Web.

Q.Each week I used to look in the paper Official Gazette for patents assigned to government agencies. I have not been able to locate them using the eOG:P. Where are they?

A. Due to a problem in programming, assignees such as The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army are listed in the Patentee Index under “The.” This is also true for other entities, such as The Boeing Company.

This is a problem that we are attempting to resolve as quickly as possible. In the meantime, however, you will need to check “The” in the Ts in the Patentee Index.

This problem was corrected in the Annual Index product.

Cassis2, DocDW, AND WINDOWS XP

The EPB staff have installed and performed extensive testing of the Cassis2 user interface on workstations running Windows XP. The software functioned as expected throughout the testing.

The DocDW products have also been similarly tested. The DocDW software also functioned as expected.

PROBLEM WITH APRIL 2003 PATENTS BIB DISC IDENTIFIED

It has recently come to our attention that more than 3,000 patent application publications are missing from the April 2003 issue of Patents BIB. These application publications have a publication date of December 5, 2002 (20021205), and range from numbers 20020180376 to 20020184004. There are also another scattered 425 application publications missing from the issue.

This problem occurred during a filtering process used to clean up data prior to loading it into the Dataware search software. We are now investigating exactly why it occurred and are working to ensure it does not occur again.

Because of this problem, we will extend your subscription by one issue.  We apologize for any inconvenience that this caused. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.

This problem was discovered by one of our subscribers. If you come across a problem with any of our products, please bring it to our attention via e-mail, fax, telephone, or U.S. mail.

eOG:P CELEBRATES AN ANNIVERSARY

July 1, 2003, marked the first anniversary of the eOG:P!