LAWSUIT SEEKS TO BLOCK DESTRUCTION OF PATENT & TRADEMARK RECORDS
Organization Decries Patent and Trademark Office Action As Detrimental To Public Interest

WASHINGTON, DC August 23 - The National Intellectual Property Researchers Association (NIPRA) today filed suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, seeking to bring the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) into compliance with section 4804(d)(2) of the American Inventors Protection Act. This action seeks to block the USPTO plan to eliminate the public patent and trademark paper collections, critical collections relied upon for accurate intellectual property research.

The lawsuit seeks to enjoin the USPTO from its announced plan to begin dismantling its paper collection of patents and trademarks, beginning on August 26th. Despite overwhelmingly negative comment, the USPTO has largely ignored public outcry and embarked on the destruction of the country's most valuable Intellectual Property resource and the world's largest collection of scientific, technical and trademark information. Although NIPRA has stated that it is not opposed in principle to the USPTO's plan to migrate to a fully automated search environment, it asserts that the maintenance of the paper collections, particularly the patent foreign art and trademark search files, is required until the automated search systems are improved and provide fully equivalent search results to a combined search of the paper and electronic records. In his July 24, 2002 certification to Congress, Under Secretary Rogan stated that the error rates were "unacceptable", he nevertheless certified that the elimination of those records would not negatively impact the public. "NIPRA members work every day on the cutting edge of technological change, so we fully understand and support the PTO's eventual goal of a paperless system," says James Cottone, President of NIPRA. "However, the abrupt elimination of the PTO's well-maintained and reliable paper collection makes no sense at this time, given the many bugs remaining in the database," adds Cottone.

Both USPTO and independent studies report substantial data error rates in the automated patent and trademark databases, and further document hundreds of thousands of missing or corrupt entries in the USPTO search systems. Thus, the USPTO assertion that the electronic systems provide "equivalent functionality" is not sufficient and NIPRA warrants that the premature elimination of the paper search collections will compromise patent and trademark quality.

NIPRA has proposed to both Congress and the USPTO that an independent side-by-side evaluation of the current search environment and the electronic search system be conducted to ensure fully equivalent search results for a sustained period prior to the elimination of the paper record.

NIPRA is a not-for-profit association of Intellectual Property attorneys, agents and professional researchers organized to promote and protect the quality and integrity of the USPTO patent and trademark records and search systems.