PatFT Operational Notices and Status

Load Status
Known Problems/Limitations
Direct Document Access without Searching
Problem/Event History

Patent Database Load Status:

The database content is current as of the most recent Tuesday (patent issue day).

Patent Database Known Problems/Limitations:

The database servers are now capable of processing approximately 300 simultaneous searches. Users attempting to execute a search when this number of searches are already in progress will receive an error message advising that the "Maximum number of users has been reached. Please try again later." Since most searches execute in a matter of two seconds or less, such status is, in effect, real-time, and users should feel free to re-submit their searches immediately.

Direct Document Access without Searching:

To Full-Page Images: Direct access to the full-page image database is now permitted without first conducting a search on the full-text database. Such access is now possible by using a URL of the form:
http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=0nnnnnnn&idkey=NONE

or

http://patimg2.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=0nnnnnnn&idkey=NONE

where "nnnnnnn" is the seven-digit patent number (right-justified with leading zeroes). The first URL, to patimg1.uspto.gov, is used if the patent number's last two (low-order) digits are in the range 00 to 49; the second URL, to patimg2.uspto.gov, is used if the patent number's last two digits are in the range 50 to 99.

For example, "http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=01234501&idkey=NONE" would retrieve patent number 1,234,501;

"http://patimg2.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=01234567&idkey=NONE" would retrieve patent number 1,234,567.

When a patent image is retrieved by this method, clicking on the link showing an up-arrow "Full-Text" will no longer take the user to the full text page.
To the Full-Text of a Particular Patent: A special shortened URL format:
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5123456
where the patent number "5123456" may be replaced by any valid patent number within the database, has been established to enable users to more easily construct a URL for bookmarking or linking to the full-text of a single granted patent. To simplify this process even further, the patent grant search process has been modified such that when a search results in a single hit, the user is taken directly to the full-text display for that patent, rather than to a hit list containing only the single patent.
For patent grant searches resulting in a single hit: the user is taken directly to the full-text display for that patent, rather than to a hit list containing only the single patent. It may be necessary to hit the "Back" button more than once, quickly, to return to the search page.

Problem/Event History:

20 March 2007: Problems in the weekly database update load process resulted in one of the two servers providing partial or incomplete search results from approximately 0630 through 1015.
7 April 2006: PatFT moved to new in-house database servers. Searchable issue dates were added for all patents (back to 1790). Direct access to full-page images (without first conducting a text search) was added. Users are now required to enter patent numbers as seven digits (characters), using leading zeroes when required.
noon 3 April - 5pm 4 April 2005: Intermittent connectivity problems were being experienced to the PatFT search pages due to networking difficulties at the contractor's ISP.
1-2 April 2005: The Web Patent Database, PatFT, was unavailable from 4pm EST on 1 April 2005 until noon EDT on 3 April 2005 due to the physical relocation of the USPTO contractor's data center.
16 November 2004: Current US Classifications updated with data from 31 October.
8 November 2004: One of three servers has failed, leaving two in operation. Occasional "Too many users -- please try again later." messages are being generated.
7 October 2004: Current US Classifications updated with data from 30 August.
5 October 2004: An error in loading this week's issued patents resulted in users not being able to search 2004 data by issue date from approximately 6:00 am until 5:57 pm.
4 August 2004: PatFT was unavailable from 10:20 to 10:41 EDT due to a network provider failure.
14 July 2004: Current US Classifications updated with data from 30 June.
17 May 2004: Current US Classifications updated with data from 30 April.
16 March 2004: Current US Classifications updated with data from 29 February.
16 March 2004, 0615 to 1530 EST: A block of utility patents from 6584613 through 6671883 (and patents of other types from that same time frame) was temporarily unavailable from the database due to an error in the weekly update process.
29 Feb - 1 March 2004, 1400 EST: Corruption of Current US Classifications data on one of our three servers caused inconsistencies while paging through long hit lists and linking to and from specific patents' full-text, especially in the results of classification searches.
4 February 2004: Current US Classifications updated with data from 31 December.
20 November 2003: Current US Classifications updated with data from 31 October.
7 October 2003: Current US Classifications updated with data from 30 August.
4 Aug 2003: From approximately 1030 to 1400 EDT some users were receiving inconsistent search results (number of hits in the hit list) due to a corrupted index file on one of the three database servers.
28 July 2003: Current US Classifications updated with data from 30 June.
16 May 2003: Current US Classifications updated with data from 30 April.
14 March 2003: Current US Classifications updated with data from 28 February.
23 January 2003: The Patent Full-Text Database (PatFT) will be functioning on three instead of the usual four servers from today through Monday, 27 January, while the servers are upgraded to new hardware. During this period, service may be slightly degraded, in that more than the usual number of "Maximum number of users has been reached. Please try again later." messages may be experienced.
16 January 2003: Current US Classifications updated with data from 31 December.
26 November 2002: Current US Classifications updated with data from 31 October.
26 November 2002: From 7:30 am to 4:30 pm, one of the four database servers was incorrectly formulating some hyperlinks to full-page images, which did not work correctly as a result.
24 November 2002: Database was inaccessible from 9 pm to 11:15 pm EST due to failure of a network switch.
22 September 2002: The four database servers are now capable of processing approximately 300 simultaneous searches. Users attempting to execute a search when this number of searches are already in progress will receive an error message advising that the "Maximum number of users has been reached. Please try again later." Since most searches execute in a matter of two seconds or less, such status is, in effect, real-time, and users should feel free to re-submit their searches immediately.
20 September 2002: Current US Classifications updated with data from 31 August.
19 September 2002: Server performance has returned to normal. Recent server slowness has been ameliorated by a return to stringent enforcement of the maximum single IP address access limit of 1000 per day to the full-text issued patent database.
10 September 2002: Users are receiving frequent http 500 "server error" message. The problem is being diagnosed. Thank you for your patience while the system is being fixed.
6 September onward: Users are experiencing slower than usual database response. While recent large increases in usage are no doubt part of the cause, diagnostic efforts continue.
22-24 August 2002: Service was slower than usual because one server was off-line due to a RAID array failure.
5 August 2002: Reminder: For patent grant searches resulting in a single hit, the user is now taken directly to the full-text display for that patent, rather than to a hit list containing only the single patent. It may be necessary to hit the "Back" button more than once to return to the search page.
30 July 2002 (continuing): The full-text database remains incapable of finding multi-token (i.e., multi-word) search terms in patents when those terms span a line break in the patent source text. Thus searching for multi-word text within quotation marks (e.g., "baseball bat") may not return all occurrences of those terms.
15 July 2002: Current US Classifications updated with data from 30 June.
5 June to 6 June 2002: Service was slower than usual because one server was off-line due to a RAID array failure.
15 May 2002: Current US Classifications updated with data from 30 April.
23 April 2002: The Patent Full-Text and Full-Page Image Databases were not available from 13:34 - 16:00 due to a loss of Internet connectivity.
16 April 2002: Current US Classifications updated with data from 28 February.
6 March 2002: The patent databases were unavailable from 1500 to 1715 for emergency maintenance.
16 January 2002: Current US Classifications updated with data from 31 December.
18 November 2001: Current US Classifications updated with data from 31 October.
25 September 2001: An operator error in loading the weekly update resulted in incorrect Current US Classifications being served between 9 am and 3 pm for patents issued today.
21 September 2001: Two search problems were fixed: one relating to a failure to yield hits on multi-token search terms spanning lines in the patent abstract, and one relating to searching for the same term in multiple fields.
20 September 2001: Current US Classifications updated with data from 31 August.
18 September 2001: The four database servers are capable of processing approximately 200 simultaneous searches. Users attempting to execute a search when this number of searches are already in progress will receive an error message advising that the "Maximum number of users has been reached. Please try again later." Since most searches execute in a matter of two seconds or less, such status is, in effect, real-time, and users should feel free to re-submit their searches immediately.
18 September 2001: Problems with one of the Full-Text Database servers resulted in frequent database "busy signals" -- i.e., the response "Maximum number of users reached. Please try again later." -- between 9 am and 1 pm EDT.
1 October 2000: The Patent Full-Text Database has been completely reloaded and re-indexed to include patent numbers and current US classifications for patents back to 1790, as well as hyperlinks to full-page images. The full-text of these patents is searchable only by patent number and current US patent classification.
1 October 2000: The Patent Full-Page Image Database (with each patent's images linked from that patent's full-text display) has been expanded to include all US patents (from patent X1 issued in 1790).