{"id":782,"date":"2017-02-20T11:29:33","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T11:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sagaciousresearch.com\/blog\/?p=782"},"modified":"2024-11-12T06:31:49","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T06:31:49","slug":"understanding-uspto-public-pair-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sagaciousresearch.com\/blog\/understanding-uspto-public-pair-portal","title":{"rendered":"Understanding USPTO Public PAIR Portal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States Patent Office provides many products and portals for patent search<\/a> professionals that can help them gain valuable insights pertaining to their inventions. PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) is one of such portals that can be considered as one of the gold-mines of patent information as it offers plenty of information to patent professionals who are looking for various kinds of data in a single user interface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this article, we will list functionalities that are of immense use for people looking for important patent information. But, before we move ahead let\u2019s define PAIR or let\u2019s try to understand what this portal is all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) System?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking broadly, USPTO PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) system is a free portal provided by the United States Patent Office to check the status of US patent applications and gain access to the correspondence documents between the applicant and the patent examiner. In other words, it is an interface through which patent professionals can gain access to the file history or the file wrapper of an intended patent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public PAIR vs Private PAIR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is both a Public and Private side to PAIR. \u201cPublic PAIR\u201d provides access to issued or published patent applications. To access Public PAIR, all you need to have is a patent, application, publication, or PCT number that you wish to search. \u201cPrivate PAIR\u201d provides secure real-time access to unpublished applications using digital certificates issued from the USPTO’s Public Key Infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While accessing public pair is an easy affair, accessing Private PAIR requires some limited recognition like digital certificates issued from the USPTO\u2019s Public Key Infrastructure.  However, it must be agreed that Private PAIR is more of a confidential one and it can be accessed only by those people who have some kind of prior recognition with the USPTO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logging in into the Public PAIR Portal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1: Navigating to the PAIR Home Page<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patent search professionals can access the Home Page of Public PAIR with this link http:\/\/portal.uspto.gov\/pair\/PublicPair<\/a>. Once you are on the Home Page<\/strong> the portal will ask you for entry of a RECAPTCHA code and the portal will move further only and only if you enter a valid captcha code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 2: Putting in the Document Identification Number<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After entering the RECAPTCHA on the Public PAIR homepage, users must enter one of the following documents identifying numbers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n