[Patentpractice] Interesting notice from USPTO re data breach

[Richard Schafer]

Pa or the course for Jamie Holcombe.

Best regards,
Richard A. Schafer | Schafer IP Law
P.O. Box 230081 | Houston, TX 77223
M: 832.283.6564 | richard at schafer-ip.com<mailto:richard at schafer-ip.com>

From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice
Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2024 3:47 PM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] Interesting notice from USPTO re data breach


This notice says:

Inquiries regarding this matter may be directed ... via email addressed to ugPto.gov.

I am pretty sure if I were to address email "to ugPto.gov" it would fail to reach its destination.  This does not instill confidence in our CIO.
On 4/28/2024 3:39 AM, Dan Feigelson via Patentpractice 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 No rights in United States patents are threatened by the access to unpublished applications.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



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://oppedahl-lists.com/pipermail/patentpractice_oppedahl-lists.com/attachments/20240428/6fbd6138/attachment.html>