The Patent Application Information Retrieval System (PAIR) provides customers with direct Internet access to patent application status information and general patent information. There are two components of PAIR: Public and Private. Public PAIR provides unrestricted access to status and history information for issued patents and published applications via the Internet. Private PAIR provides secure access to information for pending patent applications to independent inventors, registered attorneys, and patent agents using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology.

Beginning in Spring 2006 both Public and Private PAIR will allow customers to view and/or download supplemental content information; all versions of content stored in the Supplemental Complex Repository for Examiners (SCORE), including biosequence search results, will be available.

For additional information on PAIR, please visit the USPTO Internet's PAIR Information Page at: http://www.uspto.gov/ebc/pair/help.html.