Cassis Currents No. 8
July 2000

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE REORGANIZATION

The last issue of Cassis Currents announced the reorganization of the Information Dissemination Organizations. Since that issue was published, there have been a few more changes. The name for the Optical Disc Publishing Program (ODPP) was still in transition and was prematurely announced as Optical Disc Publishing Services (ODPS). TheElectronic Products Branch (EPB) is the correct name.

We are pleased to announce that Bruce Cox has been promoted to the position of Manager of the Information Products Division (IPD). Bruce has been involved with USPTO's optical disc publishing since its beginnings and had managed the former ODPP since 1995.

For the past two years, Bruce has also served as the chair of the USPTO's SGML Transition Team overseeing the transition of patent publication data format from "Green Book" to "Red Book" using SGML, which will provide for more standardization of data. In addition, he has recently been heading up the Information Dissemination Products Team planning changes that are necessary due to the upcoming implementation of Pre-Grant Publication (PGPub). The Team's main focus was to ensure the inclusion of patent application publications in both existing and new USPTO information products in electronic format.

The newly formed Information Products Division is made up of the EPB, the Data Dissemination Branch providing data on magnetic tapes, and the Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF) Branch compiling statistical reports based on U.S. patent activity. The staff of the former Office for Patent and Trademark Information's Customer Services is also now part of the IPD.  

Cassis2 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Earlier this year IDO sent out 1,300 test discs demonstrating the new Cassis2 user interface. Many of you responded with some excellent suggestions on how to improve the product. Some anomalies were reported which helped us in uncovering some design problems. These suggestions and problems were addressed by the EPB staff and were either corrected or brought up for discussion at the Optical Disc Publishing Users Group meeting. In this article, I will go over the main areas and what has been done to correct or enhance the interface and product.

The number one complaint reported had to do with the screen resolution. Depending on the user's settings, the windows would be too large or too small. The fonts were hard to read on the higher resolutions and truncated on the lower ones. The task bar icons were blurred in some cases and appeared crude in others. All in all, any resolution other than the default 800x600, had problems.

We fixed these problems by re-writing the user interface. These coding changes enabled the program to detect the monitor's resolution so that the look and size of windows, icons and text are clear and visible at all resolutions from 800x600 to 1600x1200. We have also made a modification to the Results screen, which allows it to be expanded to the width of the screen.

Other areas of complaint were the labels used on the screens and their screen location. Many of you felt that these labels should be more intuitive. The labels on the tabs are now Short Form Search, Form Search, Command Search, Results, and Sort. We have given you a choice as to where the Search button is located. By clicking the Switch button on the toolbar, the Search button can be moved to either the top or bottom of the screen.

The Results tab has also had some features added. In addition to the default results form, the user will have a choice of several displays. We will furnish style sheets for some common requests, such as mailing labels, USAPat export and a short display showing only the title and abstract information. In addition, we are developing an option that allows the user to select specific fields to be displayed. These forms will allow the user to export data in a WYSIWYG fashion. Access to these additional style sheets is via the View drop-down on the toolbar, and Display Styles. This brings up a box that lets you select from a list of styles.

On Test Disc A, the Short Form field was initially blank, allowing all fields to be searched by default. If a specific field was selected for a search, there was no option for going back to the blank without restarting the program. We have added AllFields to the drop-down on both the Short and Form Search, which resolves this inconsistency.

We made a minor change to the Sort screen. Previously there was the option to sort on Title or Abstract, which continued to sort the results in chronological order. This choice has been removed.

On the History screen, we replaced the stoplight icon with the standard paste icon. There is no functional effect, just an attempt on our part to make things clearer. The other changes were internal and designed to improve the performance of the program.

\We appreciate the feedback that you gave us on Test Disc A and encourage you to continue sending us your comments and suggestions. We will publish the next BIB disc using this new interface, and hope to have a Trademark Test Disc out by August. Let us know what you think. You can send your comments to the cassis@uspto.gov or directly to me at Ed.Vocke@uspto.gov.

Ed. Note: This article was submitted by Ed Vocke, one of EPB's Optical Disc Product Engineers who has been leading the Cassis2 Development Team.  

THE Cassis2 RESULTS SCREEN

A continuing series of articles in previous Cassis Currents issues has described the features of the Cassis2 user interface. Use of the three search screens, Short Form Search, Form Search, and Command Search, as well as the Search History and Index tools, has been described. After a search statement has been sent to the search engine and answers have been retrieved, they are displayed on the Results Screen. When the Results tab becomes activated, click on it to display the retrieved answers.

There are two display windows on the Results screen. The top window contains the document results list that includes the document number and title. The bottom window displays the bibliographic record that corresponds to the highlighted record in the top window. Note that search terms are highlighted in red. Your search statement is also displayed on the screen. For a look at the Results Screen, please see Figure 1.

Figure 1 

Icons on the toolbar that are specific to the Results Screen become activated when you have moved to that screen. These icons provide shortcuts for navigating and viewing search results. There are two sets of navigational buttons, one to move you through the results list and one to move you through the displayed documents. The first set moves you through the search results list. There are four arrows to move to the first, previous, next, or last document in the list. Another button allows you to go to a specific document number in the list.

The other set of buttons moves you through the displayed document from one occurrence of the search term(s) to the next. The set consists of four arrows to move to the first, previous, next, or last occurrence. Zoom icons allow you to increase or decrease the size of the document on the screen or select a specific zoom percentage. These features are also available from View/Zoom In, Zoom Out or Zoom.

It is possible to select specific documents from the results list. To do this, just click in the yellow box to the left of the patent number. This will insert a check mark in the yellow box. You can also highlight the record in the results list and press the space bar to insert the check mark. These selected items can now be printed or saved. To remove the check mark, click again in the yellow box or highlight the record and press the space bar.

You can print the retrieved documents in a variety of ways. To print the currently displayed document only, click on the Print icon on the toolbar. To print more than one document or the list, go to File/Print. A print menu window will open and you will be given the choice of printing the Selected List Items, Entire List, Current Document, Selected Documents, or All Documents. Make your choice and click on OK.

You can also save documents from this screen. To see your saving options, click on the Save icon or go to File/Save. The options include saving the Current Item, Selected List Items, Entire List, Current Document, Selected Documents, or All Documents. Just make your choice and click on OK.

Using the Sort screen, it is possible to sort and display your search results in a different order, other than the default chronological order. Next to the tabs for each Search screen and the Results screen, there is also a Sort tab. After clicking on the Sort tab, you will select the field or fields you want the records sorted by, for example, Assignee Name and/or Current Classification. Then, select the order in which you would like them arranged, ascending or descending.

The selected sorting order is in force until you return to the Sort tab and click on the Reset button. The status of the sorting feature as "on" or "off" is noted on the bottom of the screen.

The Sort Screen is pictured in Figure 2.

Figure 2 

A few tips about sorting: If only one answer is retrieved, it is not possible to sort. If Relevance Ranking is turned on, you cannot sort your answer set.  

WHAT CHANGES WILL PGPub BRING?

The recently enacted "American Inventor Protection Act of 1999" (AIPA) legislation was discussed in the last issue ofCassis Currents. Pre-Grant Publication (PGPub), or the publication of patent applications prior to their being issued as patents, is a major part of the new law. Utility and plant patent applications are subject to PGPub, design and provisional applications are not included. Unless the inventor verifies that he/she is not applying in a country other than the U.S. and specifically requests that the application not be published, all applications will be published 18months after the filing date. The law goes into effect on 2000 November 29.

This will create an entirely new set of documents, one that is anticipated to ultimately be many times larger than the number of granted patents. These documents will only be published in electronic format, not in paper. There will not be a separate Official Gazette for applications nor will they be included in the Official Gazette.

Patent application publications will be searchable and incorporated into current electronic search tools to make it possible to conduct just one search for both granted patents and application documents. The applications will be added to the existing searchable Cassis patent products and will also be accessible via the full text patent database on the USPTO Website, as well as the USPTO EAST and WEST search systems. A new document delivery DVD-ROM product with patent application publications, USAApp, will be added to the Cassis Series of optical discs. USAApp will be similar to USAPat and USAMark and, like these products, will use the DocDW retrieval software.

For more information about PGPub implementation, check out the AIPA page on the USPTO Website at www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/aipa/index.htm. An FAQ is currently being developed for the Website.  

UPDATE ON THE USAPat BACK FILE PROJECT

The project to publish facsimile images of the full text and drawings of U.S. patents from 1790 through 1999 on DVD-ROM is on schedule. To date, the first 53 discs of the USAPat back file have been completed. The first set of 50 discs is expected to distributed in July. A recent estimate of the back file production schedule provides approximate years that will be included on each 50-disc set in addition to the projected distribution dates.

Please keep in mind that these dates are approximate and may change due to circumstances beyond our control. You will be notified of any major changes to the schedule. For more information about the USAPat back file, please contact EPB.

The projected schedule follows:

Set Number	Years	Date
Set 1	1790 - 1917	2000 July
Set 2	1917 - 1938	2000 October
Set 3	1938 - 1958	2001January
Set 4	1958 - 1970	2001 May
Set 5	1970 - 1980	2001 September
Set 6	1980 - 1989	2001 December
Set 7	1989 - 1994	2002 March
Set 8	1994 - 1998	2002 June
Set 9	1998 - 1999	2002 September