In a previous post (Unnecessary Printing of Ribbon Copies) we discussed the issue of unnecessary printing of patents:

… many of these ribbon copies are winding up in the recycle bins almost immediately upon receipt. Some applicants have decided that the cost of shipping, cataloging, and storing these documents outweighs the cost of simply obtaining a replacement if and when needed …

Not only is a lot of paper being wasted, but a lot of government effort is being spent printing these ribbon copies. Presumably part of the issue fee is being used to cover this cost, meaning that if printing was reduced, the issue fee could be reduced.

One idea is to have the USPTO provide ribbon copies upon request, rather than as a default, assuming it would allow everyone to save some time and effort, not to mention saving some trees. Another idea is to consider whether electronic certificates could be provided - we live in a digital world where millions of dollars are transferred around from bank to bank with electronic certificates - are patents so different that they require old world paper? While there may be regulation or even statutory changes required, perhaps it is worth consideration.

Now, a new notice from the USPTO has just issued regarding e-publishing of patents.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to revise the rules of practice to issue patents electronically through its patent document viewing systems (i.e., Patent Center and Patent Application Image Retrieval (PAIR)). Issued patents would no longer be mailed to the correspondence address of record and would be available to the patentee and the public in electronic form weeks sooner.

The proposed changes represent another step the USPTO has taken to implement beginning-to-end electronic processing for patent applications and to streamline its service delivery processes. Previous efforts include the eOffice Action, the Image File Wrapper system, Public/Private PAIR, and Patent Center, among others. This new process would result in electronic patent issuance under the USPTO seal and with the Director’s signature within one week, after the patent number is assigned, reducing the pendency of every issued patent application by approximately two weeks.

There is also a USPTO blog post about it here. You can still obtain a printed copy for a fee under this new proposal (for $25). It looks like the USPTO thus plans to keep all of the money saved by this program for themselves.