U.S. Patent and Trademark Office changing to electronic format

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), Aug 17, 2004 by Staff

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is changing to an electronic format for the electronic certified copies it supplies of U.S. patent applications as filed, and U.S. patent-related file wrappers and contents.

Copies of U.S. patent application documents made from the USPTO's Image File Wrapper (IFW) electronic system will be provided entirely in electronic form and will always be provided as certified copies. In addition, certified copies of patent application documents will no longer be bound, regardless of whether produced from IFW or a paper file.

For the last two years certified copies of large patent application files produced from the USPTO's electronic systems have been provided on compact disc (CD), with an attached paper certification statement. Currently, certified copies of patent applications as filed of 400 or more pages and all certified file wrapper copies produced from IFW are provided on CD, both with attached paper certification statements.

Effective July 30 all copies of patent documents purchased under 37 CFR 1.19 and produced from IFW will be provided as electronic files only, with an imaged certification statement included as part of a digitally signed PDF (portable document format) file containing TIFF (tag image file format) images of the document pages. The electronic files may be downloaded from the USPTO website or provided by the USPTO on CD.

The electronic files are digitally signed by the USPTO for authenticity and integrity, and cannot be undetectably modified.

Before submitting electronic certified copies of the application as filed supplied on CD or in another electronic form to intellectual property offices under Article 4 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property applicants should inquire whether that office accepts priority documents in electronic form. Although the USPTO provides a certified copy in electronic form, applicants may print the certified copies to paper if required by the intellectual property office to which it is submitted.