U.S. Patent Office Security Breach

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has informed us that there was a breach in the security of some of their records between Sept. 15 and Sept. 19 of this year. The breach reportedly was caused by a software error that was corrected the day that it was discovered. These records relate to unpublished patent applications, which are normally held in secret.

Neither the actual contents of the patent applications nor any other filings were revealed during this breach, but bibliographical data and certain other history about the applications, such as the fact that an amendment was filed or that an Office Action was issued, was made available. The Patent Office was able to identify the individuals who accessed the data and has instructed them to delete any data transmitted to third parties.

We believe that this breach will not affect substantive rights and, because there are no remedial actions that we need to or can pursue, we are not taking further steps to identify the particular patent applications that were involved. Please let us know, however, if you would like us to review the list of accessed patent applications and provide you with information that may be implicated.