Re: Errors in USCO database

From: <ArborLaw[_at_]aol.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 16:22:11 -0500

Terry Carroll writes:
>
> The most common example of PTO error seems to be misspelling of the
> inventors' names. The example of the user error that stands out in
> my mind is when the prosecuting attorney filled out the allowance sheet
> with the name of the original assignee, when the application had been
> reassigned while prosecution continued. The effect was that the patent
> issued with the incorrect name on the cover sheet. This type of error
> is most vexing, because the commercial databases (or at least Dialog)
> don't catch this, and rely on the cover sheet as though accurate.
> I think errors in government databases are a fact of life, and the
> Copyright Office database is no exception.

I think this is a problem in the making unless searching software becomes a lot smarter and better-designed, because a legal or professional duty arises in many contexts (lawyerly and otherwise) to do a diligent search.

There isn't a case in copyright/patent/trademark that I know of yet, but I am anticipating one soon. There was an Article 9 decision last month with regard to searching diligence and electronic databases (reported on ucc-l, apologies for not providing the name, I'm switching mail software and cleaning up my disk). The court held that the searching party which failed to find a filing (because the name that was entered was one letter off) would get no relief. Germane to the court's decision was the existence of official paper-based records (ie, "the old way"), which could easily be scanned and which would make the typo easy to spot. I believe wild card searches were possible, but not anticipated as necessary and so not used by the searching party.

Carol Shepherd
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   Carol Ruth Shepherd                          arborlaw[_at_]aol.com
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==--====-==-=-=-==--=--====--=-=-=-====---===-=-=-====---===---= Received on Fri Nov 01 1996 - 21:23:54 GMT