Re: PTO uses scanner + OCR ?

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
John Riley  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Does USPTO use a scanner to scan in application 
>text, and then OCR for their HTML and TIFF files?

It seems so. The HTML texts on their website have many typical
OCR errors. 

>Letting applicants send in .TXT files in 
>disks or CD-ROMs seems much more efficient.

The European Patent Office offers online filing, but you have to
use the Adobe PDF format. You can (and should) also file a copy
in Word or whatever original format you want to use, but there
has to be a PDF. The copy comes in very handy in case the PDF
conversion went wrong. I had one case where all mathematical
symbols were replaced by blanks in the PDF text.
http://www.epoline.org/epoline?language=EN&page=patentapplicationfiling

The USPTO has done work on online filing but apparently it
didn't work too well. They are now considering adopting the
European filing system.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/strat21/action/eg2p26.htm

Oh, apparently both the EPO and the USPTO accept filings
in XML:
http://www.epoline.org/epoline?language=EN&page=patxml

Arnoud

-- 
Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch patent attorney - Speaking only for myself
Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/