By Sydney Kokjohn —

In a press release issued June 2, 2010, Under
Secretary of Commerce and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office David Kappos announced that the USPTO would work with Google to make
bulk electronic patent and trademark data available to the public at no
cost.  This data can be accessed here.

In the press release, Director Kappos
stated that:

The USPTO is committed to providing increased transparency as called for
by the President's Open Government Initiative.  An important element of
that transparency is making valuable public patent and trademark information
more widely available in a bulk form so companies and researchers can download
it for analysis and research.  Because the USPTO does not currently have the technical capability to
offer the data in bulk form from our own Web site, we have teamed with Google
to provide the data in a way that is convenient and at no cost for those who
desire it.

Before this collaboration, the USPTO provided this
bulk data only for a fee (see "Products & Services Catalog").  Examples of products now provided
through the Google site include:

• Patent grants and published applications
• Trademark applications
• Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB)
proceedings
• Patent classification
information
• Patent maintenance
fee events
• Patent and Trademark assignments

The USPTO and Google plan to make additional data
available in the future, such as patent and trademark file histories.