United States Patent and Trademark Office Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2002. Celebrating the Past and Embracing the Future

摘要

This was a momentous year for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on a variety of fronts. We launched an aggressive and comprehensive quality assurance program focusing on all stages of the examination process, as well as the recruitment and training of examiners and managers. We expanded programs for independent inventors through our newly created Inventor Assistance Office, and continued to work with our customers, through roundtables and partnerships, to improve the quality of the services we offer. We established patent electronic filing partnerships to assist us in moving toward a full paperless patent process by the end of 2004, and continued to expand the number of trademark applications and documents that can be filed electronically to permit nearly all trademark communications to be conducted in this medium. We also continued our work through a number of domestic and international fora to streamline and strengthen protection for patents, trademarks, and copyrights at home and abroad. In addition, for the tenth consecutive year, we received an unqualified audit opinion on our annual financial statements.