.Welcome to the Partridge web page.
Unfortunately, Partridge doesn't work any more. It stopped working on January 1, 2008, because USPTO shut down the programming interface (called "USPTO Direct") that Partridge needed to do its job. USPTO did this without having released a documented programming interface to succeed the USPTO-Direct programming interface.
We suspected this day would come. A year and a half ago, I (Carl Oppedahl) personally visited USPTO and begged the PAIR project manager to provide a documented programming interface. I personally contacted a number of USPTO people over the past year and a half, asking again and again that USPTO provide a documented programming interface. But here we are, and there is no documented programming interface for PAIR.
One might suggest that we simply do our best to design software that will extract the needed information from PAIR based upon how PAIR works now. Why do we need USPTO to document the interface for extracting information from PAIR, if it is the sort of thing an able programmer could figure out even without USPTO's help or cooperation, one might ask?
The answer is that if USPTO does not document the programming interface, there is the danger that USPTO would abruptly and arbitrarily fiddle with and change the PAIR interface from time to time. Such behavior by USPTO could make a ten-thousand-dollar piece of software into an expensive paperweight.
This is not an idle concern, the risk that USPTO might change things in future to break software like Partridge. As one highly visible example, on January 1, 2008, USPTO changed the user interface for Public PAIR. The change was done without any warning and without any dialogue with USPTO customers. The change was designed specifically to break things like Partridge.
If you don't like the fact that you can't use Partridge any more, here are some things you should do:
Read what users have to say about Partridge.
I find Partridge indispensable in terms of monitoring both our own as well as our competitor’s files. If I didn’t have Partridge, I’d have to spend a lot more time (every day, every other day, etc.) to key in each application number separately (at least for our competitor’s patents/applications) to obtain the status of these applications on PAIR. This way, I just run USPTO Direct, hit the update button, and off it goes. All of the applications are updated within a matter of minutes!! I inevitably find out about status changes (publications, office actions, notices of allowance, etc.) WAY before our external counsel has any idea about the change. In fact, by the time I get a report from external counsel about an office action, I’ve generally already been through the office action + the relevant prior art and have started to consider our response! (Nir Lifshitz, Intellectual Property Coordinator, Baylis Medical Company Inc.)
I think the Partridge program is great ... It's very nice having full access to our data at the PTO on a secure basis and I think it is proper that our government provide us our information in an efficient and inexpensive manner. I know of no better way than the PAIR/Partridge combination. (Andrew Jordan, Esq., Cislo & Thomas LLP)
Have you ever gone to the US Patent & Trademark Office's "PAIR" web page to check the status of a patent application? Have you tired of typing in the same serial number day after day on that web page to obtain the current status of a patent application?
Then you may wish to try our free Partridge software. The Partridge software lets you build up a list of the US patent applications and patents which you would like to monitor. You can run the software to obtain the status of each application and patent. Later, you can run the software again, and it will tell you what changes there have been to the status of the applications and patents.
The software can automatically send an email notification to one or more email addresses whenever the status of an application or patent changes. The software will also create a web (HTML) page which you may choose to place on an intranet web site for easy viewing and searching by persons within your organization.
Before using Partridge, you must already have done all the things necessary to use PAIR. For more information on PAIR, see http://www.oppedahl.com/pair.
To use Partridge you will need the USPTO-Direct software. You can obtain it at http://pto-ebc.uspto.gov:443/index.html.
There are two versions of Partridge, the original Partridge software and Partridge-Pub.
The original Partridge software uses USPTO/direct to gain access to application status for all applications associated with a particular customer number. It obtains status of applications including applications that are not available to the general public.
Partridge-Pub is a new version of Partridge that only obtains information on applications that have been published by the US Patent Office. This software does not need to use USPTO/direct because such applications are open to the public. (Note: due to a change in the USPTO web site, Partridge-Pub does not work any more. We hope eventually to develop and release a new version of Partridge-Pub which will work with the newly changed USPTO web site.)
Which version of Partridge do I need?. Do you have a cryptographic certificate from the US Patent Office which allows you to use USPTO/Direct? Then you should be using the original Partridge software. If you do not have a cryptographic certificate from the US Patent Office, then you should be using the Partridge-Pub software.
To obtain the Partridge software, you can simply download the software to your computer. You can download the original Partridge software. (You may need to shift-click to obtain the file. The file is about 500K in size so it may take five minutes or more to download.) Make careful note of the directory in your computer to which you have downloaded the file. Then run the file "partridge.exe" or "partridge-pub.exe" which you have downloaded, which will install the software to your system. (The installation program asks you to choose where to store various things, and we suggest you use the default values provided by the installation program.) You will then be asked to restart your computer, after which the installation program finishes.
Then run the program "Partridge" by clicking on its icon on your desktop.
You will then be asked to provide some configuration information. After that you can let the Partridge software obtain a list, from the PAIR server, of your pending patent applications and issued patents. You can enter additional patent application numbers and patent numbers that you would like to monitor. The Partridge software can then check the status of those patent records, displaying its findings on the screen. It will also email the findings to you and will create a web page showing the findings.
If you would like to learn more about the software before trying it, feel free to look at the user manual and help file.
Getting USPTO Direct working on a second computer. We have prepared a short article on the subject of getting USPTO Direct to work on a second computer. This is the sort of thing you would need to do to get Partridge working on a second computer.
Partridge monitors the status of patent applications. We have also prepared free software called Feathers which monitors US trademark applications. We also have prepared free software called Raptor which monitors US Express Mail filings. We have also prepared free software called Goosefeathers which monitors Canadian trade-mark applications.
We have set up an email listserver for users of Partridge. This permits users of Partridge to post their questions and to discuss the software. To subscribe or unsubscribe or to learn how to post messages, go to this page.
You will probably also find it helpful to subscribe to the email listserver for the PAIR system. Instructions for joining that group may be found at http://www.oppedahl.com/pair.
Frequently asked questions about the Partridge software
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