Automated Patent System

Information on PTO's Program to Automate Patent Information and Processes Gao ID: T-IMTEC-92-20 May 28, 1992

The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) maintains the world's largest single source of technology information in retrievable form. PTO's files contain about 32 million documents involving U.S. and foreign patents as well as technical material. Although inventors and patent attorneys are PTO's principal clients, investors, corporations, and researchers also depend on the information PTO maintains. PTO began a long-term program in 1983 to automate the agency's paper files, along with patent application, examination, and dissemination processes. PTO estimates that it will have spent more than $400 million on the Automated Patent System by October 1992 and that it will spend another $555 million on the system during the next decade. GAO's testimony (1) provides a brief overview of the Automated Patent System program, (2) describes what PTO has accomplished through its automation effort, and (3) discusses what remains to be done.



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