[Patentpractice] Interesting notice from USPTO re data breach

[Krista Jacobsen]

I received one this morning, too, also with the April 27 date, for a
continuation application.

It took them 7.5 weeks to discover the error? Wow.

------------------------------------------
Krista S. Jacobsen
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Jacobsen IP Law
krista at jacobseniplaw.com
T:  408.455.5539
www.jacobseniplaw.com


On Sun, Apr 28, 2024 at 2:43 AM Dan Feigelson via Patentpractice <
patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:

> I got the following in one of my cases. Supposedly posted yesterday
> (Saturday, April 27)
>
> *Notice of Potential Erroneous Release of Patent Application Titles*
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> You are receiving this notification because your application ’spatent
> 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.
>
> 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 patents are threatened by the access to unpublished applications.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.
>
> We’re 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Henry “Jamie” Holcombe
> Chief Information Officer
> US Patent and Trademark Office
> Office +1 (571)272-9400
>
> Dated: April 27 th , 2024
>
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