The USPTO World Wide Web site (www.uspto.gov) provides regularly updated releases regarding its operations and intellectual property matters in general. The following is a summary of some of the more resent releases.

Database Protection Legislation
(www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/hr354.html) Statement of A.J. Pincus of the United States Department of Commerce concerning H.R. 354 "The Collections of Information Antipiracy Act."

In the wake of Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Corp., 499 U.S. 340 (1991), which addressed the narrow copyright protection that databases can enjoy, law makers have struggled with the issue of how to provide a proper incentive structure for the makers and users of databases in an information-driven economy. H.R. 354 addresses the problem of economic free-riders of gathered information by imposing liability on any person who extracts or uses in commerce all or a substantial part of a database so as to cause harm to the actual or potential market of the database creator while providing fair use of gathered information.

Trademark Databases (www.uspto.gov/tarr/index.html) The USPTO is running a pilot of its TARR system that allows anyone to retrieve current status information from the USPTO's internal trademark database. Users of TARR need only enter a valid trademark serial number or registration number.

Patents to Issue More Quickly
(www.uspto.gov/web/menue/anounce/faster.htm) The USPTO is striving to streamline its procedures for processing patent applications from the filing of an application to the issuance of a patent. Decreasing the time between payment of the issue fee of an allowed application to the issuance of the corresponding patent has been targeted by the USPTO. San Diego patent practitioners have already noted a significant decrease in this time interval.

Comments on Interim Guidelines for Examination of Patent Applications Under the 35 U.S.C. 112 "Written Description" Requirement
(www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/hearings/com112/com112.htm) The USPTO's Interim Guidelines for Examination of Patent Applications Under the 35 U.S.C. 112 "Written Description" Requirement is a document particularly directed to the examination of claims directed to sequences such as nucleic acid sequences, including expressed sequence tags (EST's). These guidelines have sparked comments from a variety of individuals from governments, private practice and industry.

Full Text Images of Patents now Available
(www.uspto.gov/patft/images.htm) The USPTO continues to strive to provide patented information to the general public in an ever-increasing valuable and useful format. Gladly, full page images of each page of certain patents are now available from the USPTO.