<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>I consider it vanishingly unlikely that the CIO successfully
communicated this <i>mea culpa</i> Notice to all or even most of
the US patent applicants whose invention titles got revealed to
third parties.</p>
<p>A few minutes ago I received the same <i>mea culpa</i> Notice
that Dan received, in one of my recently filed US patent
applications for one of my clients. The Notice is attached. The
reason I received the Notice is simple -- I myself carried out a
recordation in Ass. Center against that US patent application. So
I was given the opportunity to see the title of an application
that I myself had filed. No harm, no foul.</p>
<p>What the CIO did, I expect, was to generate a report of all <i><b>completed
</b></i>recordation submissions that anybody carried out between
February 5 and March 29. And yes of course in each of those
recordations, the invention title got revealed, but common sense
tells us that the vast majority of those filers were filers who
already knew the invention title because it was an application
that they already knew about (typically because they filed it in
the first place). <br>
</p>
<p>Those who have made use of Ass. Center are very familiar with
this part of the e-filing process. You enter a US patent
application number and click "next". And then Ass. Center
displayed the invention title. You were then invited to look at
the application title to decide whether you made any mistake when
you entered the US patent application number. If the title did
not look familiar, maybe you mistyped a digit in the application
number. At that point, you would click the "back" button to enter
a corrected application number, and you would proceed eventually
to a "submit" screen.<br>
</p>
<p>What the CIO surely missed is all of the instances where an Ass.
Center use made a mistake in the application number, and saw
somebody else's invention title, and then went back and entered a
corrected application number. I am quite sure that Ass. Center
never logged the instance of the incorrect application number
having been entered <i>and then subsequently corrected</i>, prior
to the "submit" button being clicked. I am quite sure that the
CIO has not communicated this <i>Notice of Potential Erroneous
Release of Patent Application Titles </i>to the applicant whose
incorrect application number had gotten entered by mistake by
somebody else, because I am quite sure that those "incorrect"
application numbers never got logged.</p>
<p>In round numbers, applicants file roughly half a million patent
applications per year. During the seven weeks that this defect in
Ass. Center was displaying invention titles to third parties,
something like eighty thousand patent applications got filed. I'd
guess that in maybe 50% of those cases, somebody carried out an
e-filing in Ass. Center. Yes, I realize the e-filings were partly
for cases filed before Ass Center got rolled out. But anyway,
maybe Ass Center got used around forty thousand times during the
duration of the data breach.</p>
<p>Then in recent days the CIO decided to send out this Notice. I
was one of the roughly forty thousand Ass. Center users who
received the <i>mea culpa</i> Notice, and in my case it was no
harm, no foul. I'd guess that the vast majority of the recipients
were similarly in a no harm, no foul situation.</p>
<p>The vast majority of US patent applicants who <i><b>did</b></i>
have their invention titles revealed to a third party probably did
not receive the CIO's <i>mea culpa</i> Notice, because I am sure
the developers of Ass. Center failed to log the mistyped
application numbers. If an applicant whose invention title got
revealed in this way to a third party did receive the CIO's <i>mea
culpa</i> Notice, it would only be due to a coincidence that the
applicant had by chance itself made use of Ass. Center during the
time of the data breach.<br>
</p>
What the USPTO ought to do, as a corrective step, is to publish the
<i>mea culpa</i> Notice in some prominent way on the USPTO's web
site. Only then is it likely that a significant fraction of the US
patent applicants whose invention titles were revealed to third
parties will learn of the data breach.<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/28/2024 3:39 AM, Dan Feigelson via
Patentpractice wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:24743b6e-d5bb-4ee5-8133-ddc44724942e@smtp-relay.sendinblue.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<img
src="https://gcfagjf.r.af.d.sendibt2.com/tr/op/xQBN7WoX4km-Hd-EOZA78xeQIYiTFH3Di1tCfsobBmQwEbfgf0vW3GIEzFijYMQW9T4twnacybyfuFHmezPuBhsEjhvGIq4gPb7HheB3l1MyaVZHZBFJvyNmbkgv5nX9nwf6Bobw8Lw06ch0QDr9CibYpzdtEMtkiFig92AI7QveU9KTOazOv_ai1qwcIo0-0np6F8wdaL4UVLJfwzdVOX9n-Vl4s--92sWV"
moz-do-not-send="true" width="1" height="1">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>I got the following in one of my cases. Supposedly posted
yesterday (Saturday, April 27)<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><b>Notice of Potential Erroneous Release of Patent
Application Titles</b></div>
<br>
On February 5, 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO), replaced the Electronic Patent Assignment System
(EPAS) and Electronic Trademark Assignment System (ETAS) with
Assignment Center.<br>
<br>
Between February 5, 2024 and March 29, 2024, the USPTO,
unintentionally, through a computer programming error, permitted
bibliographic information to be viewed by unauthorized
individuals with access to registered Assignment Center
accounts. This bibliographic information was limited to the
application number (the two-digit series code plus the six-digit
serial number) and title of the invention.<br>
<br>
You are receiving this notification because your application
\u2019spatent title may have been viewed during that time frame by
individual(s) who lacked permission to do so . The software
error was first reproduced by USPTO on March 28, 2024, and was
corrected on March 29, 2024. Only application numbers and titles
were disclosed; it is important to note that your specification
and claims were not part of the information made available and
were not accessed.<br>
<br>
Any improper access of the application information between the
dates of February 5, 2024 and March 29, 2024, is not considered
a publication of such applications under 35 U.S.C. 122(b). No
rights in United States patents are threatened by the access to
unpublished applications. It is extremely unlikely that the
title could disclose the invention in a way that would
constitute patent- defeating prior art in any jurisdiction. To
the extent any issue is raised, the USPTO will assist applicants
by confirming that the disclosure was erroneous and inadvertent.<br>
<br>
We\u2019re committed to data security and are taking enhanced steps
to prevent incidents such as this from happening in the future.
The USPTO sincerely regrets this error and is instituting more
testing controls, both manual and automated testing, to prevent
similar processing errors in the future.<br>
<br>
Inquiries regarding this matter may be directed to Mark Polutta,
Senior Legal Advisor, at (571) 272-7709 or Andrew Stclair, Legal
Advisor, at (571) 270-0238, both of the Office of Patent Legal
Administration or via email addressed to ugPto.gov.<br>
<br>
Henry \u201cJamie\u201d Holcombe<br>
Chief Information Officer<br>
US Patent and Trademark Office<br>
Office +1 (571)272-9400<br>
<br>
Dated: April 27 th , 2024
<div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"
data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr"><span>
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>