City of Sunnyvale federal patent partnership established.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 2, 1994--The first step toward the development of an extensive and unique partnership between the City of Sunnyvale and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) will take place in Sunnyvale on Wednesday, Nov. 9, when the federal government launches enhanced patent services for the western United States and the Pacific Rim.

Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Bruce Lehman will be in Sunnyvale to formally institute the partnership with the City of Sunnyvale Public Library. The partnership will expand and enhance the City's capabilities to meet the needs of inventors, corporations and researchers to obtain patent and trademark information more easily outside of Washington.

The inaugural event will be held Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at the Sunnyvale Community Center, located at 550 East Remington Drive in Sunnyvale. Following the partnership ceremonies at 9:30 a.m., the Patent and Trademark Office will conduct its first technical patent seminar under the new partnership at the Community Center on Wednesday and Thursday.

The new enterprise will be called the Sunnyvale Center for Innovation, Invention and Ideas (SCI3). It will result in a stronger, more effective local patent and trademark information service with access to patent examiners and other federal patent services until now not available outside of Washington. The Sunnyvale City Council authorized the partnership in October.

"This is an outstanding opportunity for both Sunnyvale and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office," said Lehman, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and PTO Commissioner. "Together, we will be able to improve critically important services for businesses, not only in the San Francisco Bay Area but in the entire western region of the United States and the Pacific Rim.

"We are committed to improving the quality of our services and bringing them closer to our customer to make it easier to do business with the patent and trademark office. Our partnership with Sunnyvale to establish SCI3 will help accomplish this goal."

A key element of the partnership will be the installation of two state-of-the-art automated PTO imaging workstations at a new Sunnyvale patent information facility. With the new equipment to be located in Sunnyvale, on-line access to images and drawings crucial to patent research will be available for the first time at a location outside of Washington.

"This will be a critically important convenience for technology businesses in the western United States as well as in Silicon Valley," said Lehman. "At present, businesses, inventors and researchers have only limited on-line access to our patent text database at several locations throughout the country. By extending our services to where the action is, we can make it easier for innovation to reach the marketplace sooner."

In addition to being in the heart of Silicon Valley, the City of Sunnyvale has earned a worldwide reputation for its high quality customer service, results-oriented budgeting, and willingness to try new approaches to address community issues.

"We also can build on 30 years of experience with our own Sunnyvale Patent Information Clearinghouse which has served our region so well," said Mary Clare Sprott, acting director of Sunnyvale libraries. "With the assistance from PTO, we now will become the only other location besides the main patent office in Washington where patent research can be conducted on the same database that patent examiners themselves use.

"We have been working with federal patent officials since early this year to bring this partnership to completion," she said. "We were able to demonstrate that Sunnyvale was the logical place for this partnership based on our location, our effective planning and management systems, our experience serving the patent community, and our commitment and responsiveness to innovation."

The PTO will invest between $275,000 and $375,000 to set up SCI3, including the automated patent information system, workstations, video-conferencing facilities, and training. Sunnyvale will provide the facilities and staff for the center, as well as promote the enhanced services to businesses in an expanded market.

"We will relocate our existing patent information clearinghouse form its current home to a more appropriate and easily accessible facility in downtown Sunnyvale in the next several months," Sprott added. "We expect that the larger and visible location of SCI3, with its advanced research capabilities and a substantial presence by the federal patent office, will be a catalyst for business opportunities in the field of intellectual property which will benefit our local and regional economy."

The automated patent system image workstations and video-conferencing systems are scheduled to be in service in spring 1995. The partnership will begin as a 33-month project, and it will be evaluated for long-term continuation in June 1997.

CONTACT: City of Sunnyvale

              David Vossbrink, 408/730-7476
              Mary Clare Sprott, 408/730-7315
              Richard Maulsby, 703/305-8341