Entrust Customers

The United States Patent and Trademark Office

Be more responsive, improve service, and provide better access. These guiding principles resonate loudly with the employees and customers of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Their mission: to administer laws relating to patents and trademarks, and promote industrial and technical progress in the United States. When it comes to patents and trademarks, the USPTO has to know who they are dealing with online, be able to do it confidentially, and do it in a trustworthy manner. With over 17,000 registered patent practitioners as well as independent inventors, the USPTO has a unique set of customers to satisfy.

The Challenges of Becoming a Performance-Based Organization
As a result of the 1990 Omnibus Reconciliation Act and the American Inventors Protection Act, the USPTO needed to operate more like a private business, providing products and services of value to customers in exchange for fees used to fund operations. Like any private business, the USPTO became a performance-based organization, accountable for results based on clear objectives, specific measurable goals, customer service standards, and targets for improved performance.

In the mid 1990s, USPTO's objectives were revised to include using the Internet as the means to provide better access to patent application status information. Confidence in the electronic information and supporting information technology infrastructure was essential for creating a trusted environment so that the USPTO could exchange sensitive data electronically with its customers, and business partners worldwide. In their efforts to deliver responsive solutions to meet customer requirements, the USPTO needed to: Preserve the confidentiality of information exchanges; Ensure the integrity of patent application submissions, since the content of a patent application and related communication defines the patent holder's rights; and identify who USPTO is dealing with electronically, since the patent law restricts who may access information relating to a pending patent application. Password-based systems and Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) were considered but rejected due to potential vulnerabilities of these poor authentication strategies in view of the large potential value of a patented invention.

To enable substantial cost savings and improved customer delivery, the USPTO wanted to implement a single, highly scalable, and secure infrastructure that would support both internal and external applications.

The Solution
USPTO chose Entrust to provide the enhanced security services vital to their online initiatives. By implementing Entrust's Web Portal Solution, USPTO was able to rapidly integrate security into its existing environment.

The USPTO now provides secure, convenient and cost-effective electronic services for the filing and processing of patent applications, supported by Entrust technology. The solution makes use of both encryption and digital signatures to positively identify the customer, verify the authenticity of their patent application data submission, and ensure the privacy of that information, all within a security infrastructure that is transparent to the user. In addition, Entrust's Web Portal Solution supports secure and authenticated communications and commerce with a host of USPTO's end users.

The need for the type of enhanced security solutions that Entrust provides became even more important when the American Inventors Protection Act required the USPTO to publish certain patent applications 18 months after filing, including in some cases, pre-selected information from those applications. With such time-sensitive activity at stake, this process could only be accomplished by relying on electronic transactions supported by Entrust's enhanced security capabilities.

By July of 2001, the USPTO had over 7000 patent practitioners using digital certificates - an achievement in itself, but not the only measurement of success. Although the United States Patent and Trademark Office has spent over $4 million U.S. on developing and implementing its Entrust solution and electronic receiving system, this financial outlay will translate into substantial savings and has already improved service delivery for the agency. The agency spends $36 million U.S. annually in patent application printing and redaction costs. The agency will recoup its initial security investment as soon as 21,000 applications are filed electronically - which translates to seven per cent of projected annual filings.

Entrust's Web Portal Solution is demonstrating success. There is apparent high customer demand for secured access to patent status information, and great interest in electronic filing of patent applications. USPTO has become a leader in the international patent community regarding PKI enhanced security and as a PKI early implementor has become a source of lessons learned for other US Federal Agencies. Given the highly positive response to date, the USPTO is getting closer to meeting its customers' goals of better service and reaching its own goals for "best practice".

In the near future the PKI will be used to provide authenticated remote access to USPTO search systems as well as support the security needs of the patent examiner "work at home " initiative.

The Results

• Long-term cost savings in the cost to put each patent application in to publishable form.
• Return on investment after only 7% projected annual filings
• Overwhelming positive response by users and the express interest of patent practitioners
• High customer demand for secured access to patent status information, and great interest in electronic filing of patent applications
• Satisfies legal requirements for privacy, identification and verification. confidentiality, authentication, integrity and non-repudiation