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• To: malamud@town.hall.org
• Subject: copy of email to R. Brown re PTO
• From: ssu!fda!dj@nbn.nbn.com (D.L. Jewett)
• Date: Wed, 04 Jan 95 10:36:03 -0800

Dear Secretary Brown:

I am much disturbed to hear that the PTO has shutdown an Internet access to full patent text, preventing Carl Malamud at town.hall.org from providing full text patents over the Internet, under the name of the Internet Multicasting Service. Such a service is critically important for my small business. I am research director for a small business which is developing medically-related inventions. We routinely search the medical literature, and are about to start searching the patent base for ideas and competitors. The PTO's action seriously hampers our efforts. Our research is supported by NIH under Small Business grants, but the costs of patent searches cannot be charged to such grants, hence a low cost search allows us access that we would NOT OTHERWISE HAVE.

Now, NIH makes it's database of medical literature readily available, so why shouldn't the PTO? The PTO is very slow in moving into the computer age. Some European Patent Offices REQUIRE submission digitally.

So the PTO action certainly is inconsistent with Vice-President Gore's efforts on promoting the "Information Super Highway", as well as your efforts to promote innovation through small businesses. The PTO seems to be protecting a specific information supplier that technology has superceded, and the marketplace will now reject.

I heard you talk in Santa Clara, and your enthusiasm and support for Silicon Valley were clear. Here is a time for you to act-- to get the PTO to come to grips with the 1990's, and to provide support for innovative small businesses!

Sincerely,

Don L. Jewett, M.D., D.Phil. Director of Research

Abratech Corporation Suite 255 475 Gate Five Road Sausalito, CA 94965

jewett@abratech.com

phone 415/289-7455 fax 415/331-6126

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