!100494 PTO cancels PAMS procurement The PTO has canceled its RFP to upgrade the Patent Application Management System (PAMS), citing budget shortfalls and lack of available funding. PAMS currently is an ASCII-interface-based system that tracks the current status of all filed US patent applications. As patents are processed and handled at each stage, information is entered into the PAMS database. This is disappointing, as anything that helps spead up patent processing should be strongly supported. The PTO plans to release a new RFP next March for the PAMS upgrade. Part of the problems is that Congress keeps on stealing PTO funds, wrecking the PTO's ability to make multi-year budgets. Write a letter to your Representative. The RFP cancellation also seems to have affected efforts to upgrade the interface to the Automated Patent System (APS), the PTO's database of all of the images and text to US patents going back decades, though the PTO plans to continue working on APS (and charge for APS access by the public). Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service