U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Receives Data Quality Challenge - Data Quality Act

Data Quality Act: News Background Analysis Correspondence Gov Docs Links

Published: 03/01/2004

Printable Version
Email to a Friend

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Receives Data Quality Challenge

The Department of Commerce U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) received a data quality request October 2, 2002 requesting correction of information associated with a specific patent (6,344,272). The petitioner asserts that while the patent was processing, the wrong set of claims where identified and disseminated with the patent on the USPTO website.

Apparently, the applicant previously submitted a correction to USPTO and received a Certificate of Correction, meaning that USPTO corrected the information and placed the correction online in image search files. However, the petitioner contends the patent information in the text- searchable database was not corrected, and requests this be completed.

USPTO responded November 21, 2002 and denied the request. USPTO claimed that its computer system does not allow text searching of corrections in order to maintain the most economical system. In the letter, the agency states that it is aware of the petitioners' concerns and future modifications to address this problem are being considered. It appears that the data quality process is the incorrect mechanism to correct such a complaint, as the petitioner already received a Certificate of Correction through a separate process.