United States Patent and Trademark Office: Search System Problems Being Addressed, But Improvements Needed for Future Systems. Inspection Report No. OSE-12679

摘要

Patent examiners determine the uniqueness of a submitted patent by searching previously granted U.S. and foreign patents and relevant non-patent literature, such as technical journals, collectively called prior art. Before the advent of automated searching, examiners searched only paper patents to determine uniqueness. Since the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) introduced its first patent search system in 1986, examiners have increasingly relied on automated systems to search prior art. The objective of automated searching is to improve patent quality and maintain examiner productivity as the volume of patent filings increases. In 1994, USPTO decided to replace its primary search system, Messenger, because the technology was becoming obsolete and capacity limitations were making it difficult to support the needs of the rapidly growing patent examining corps. USPTO also concluded that making Messenger year 2000 compliant would be uneconomical. Consequently, USPTO decided to allow the license for Messenger to expire and remove the system from operations by September 30, 1999. Thus, the new search system had to be ready to support operations at that time. The Patent Commissioner and USPTOs Chief Information Officer (CIO) were the designated decision authorities for the search system program, with responsibility for monitoring progress and approving key decisions. The objectives of this evaluation were to assess the development and operation of USPTOs new search system to (1) determine whether it is adequately supporting patent application processing and (2) identify lessons learned that can be applied to future system programs.