[Patentpractice] Every USPTO system relating to assignments is broken today

[Randall Svihla]

Yes, that is certainly the gold standard.


From: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2025 12:59 PM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] Every USPTO system relating to assignments is broken today


Thank you Randall for providing the wording of the statute.

The way I see it standard of care is to get an assignment recorded within three months of its execution date.  But having said that, of course one can record after three months, and one could get lucky and maybe no intervening assignment will come into existence.
On 10/16/2025 4:23 AM, Randall Svihla wrote:
35 USC 261:
An interest that constitutes an assignment, grant or conveyance shall be void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for a valuable consideration, without notice, unless it is recorded in the Patent and Trademark Office within three months from its date or prior to the date of such subsequent purchase or mortgage.
From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2025 3:54 AM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Carl Oppedahl <carl at oppedahl.com><mailto:carl at oppedahl.com>
Subject: [Patentpractice] Every USPTO system relating to assignments is broken today


It will be recalled that assignments need to be recorded within three months of the date of execution (35 U.S. Code § 261, 15 U.S. Code § 1060).  If you happen to have in hand an assignment that was executed on July 16, 2025, then it needs to be recorded by today, October 16, 2025.  It looks to me as though it is impossible to do such a recordation today, given that the USPTO has shut down Assignment Center.

See blog article<https://blog.oppedahl.com/every-uspto-system-relating-to-assignments-is-broken-today/>.
On 9/27/2025 2:50 AM, Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice wrote:

Well, the USPTO seems to have blinked.  The upheaval scheduled for September 27 has apparently been postponed until October 20.  See blog article<https://blog.oppedahl.com/uspto-blinks-on-shutdown-of-familiar-assignment-searches/>.
On 8/27/2025 3:13 PM, Carl Oppedahl via Patentpractice wrote:

I think there is a typo in the headline and opening sentences.   What they meant to write is:

Things will be miserable on September 27

All of the existing ways of searching for assignments will get shut down on September 27.  A successor system that has never been beta-tested will be turn on on September 27.  It won't work right.

The new system will be harder to use and will require that you log in and use two-factor authentication, even when searching for information that is a matter of public record.

For a user who is trying to look up assignment information for a PCT application, it will fail.

For a user who is trying to look up assignment information for a Hague application, it will fail.

The new system will fail to correctly match up a recordation against a PCT number with the corresponding US national-phase application number.

The new system will fail to correctly match up a recordation against a US national-phase application number with the corresponding PCT number.

The new system will fail to correctly match up a recordation against a  Hague number with the corresponding US designation (35-series) application number.

The new system will fail to correctly match up a recordation against a US designation (35-series) application number with the corresponding Hague number.

For a user who is trying to look up assignment information for an application that has not been published it will fail.

Within a week or two, it will be discovered that the new system has bugs that reveal applicant information that is not supposed to be revealed, and parts of the new system will have to be shut down abruptly.

Weeks will pass before most of the bugs and defects in the successor system are more or less corrected.  Even after half a year some bugs and defects will not have been corrected.


On 8/27/2025 12:41 PM, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office wrote:
Assignment Search will be live effective September 27, 2025


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News Brief
USPTO enhances assignment records search process

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is streamlining the overall assignment search experience by replacing two legacy search applications—Patent Assignment Search and Assignments on the Web—with one, more reliable, secure, and easy to use Assignment Search application.

Starting on September 27, 2025, Assignment Search will be live, and the two legacy systems will cease to be available. This new, web-based application provides customers seeking patent and trademark assignment information with reliable, detailed results via a modernized interface. Customers can perform basic searches and refine their searches using the filtering options available in the “advanced search” field of the tool.

To improve the customer experience, all previous assignment services will be centrally located in Assignment Center. The new Assignment Search application can be found in Assignment Center<https://links-1.govdelivery.com/CL0/https:%2F%2Fassignmentcenter.uspto.gov%2F%3Futm_campaign=subscriptioncenter%26utm_content=%26utm_medium=email%26utm_name=%26utm_source=govdelivery%26utm_term=/1/01000198ecd61ac8-0edaff98-b019-4408-a805-cafcfccf4819-000000/z8W_EfvTSARxBIa4gtdydrk3xJ0EWQqVbmClCXc_vhY=420> on September 27, 2025.


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