🚀 go-pugleaf

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office operates a BBS.  You can call it at
+1 703 305 8950.  Or you can supposedly telnet to it by telnetting to
fedworld.gov and then using a gateway to the BBS.  I tried that today
and the gateway was not working, so I had to call long-distance.
Perhaps you will have better luck.

I downloaded the following from the BBS and am posting it here in case
it may be of interest.

The following is a table of contents for the PTO BBS including
brief descriptions of each submenu.

Main [TOP] Menu

     1.0) News & Bulletins
     2.0) Services & Products
     3.0) Patent Information
     4.0) Files to Download
     5.0) Utilities
     6.0) Directory Information
     7.0) Trademark Information
     8.0) Help
     9.0) Electronic Mail

     1.0) News & Bulletins Submenu

     This submenu contains news notices about the PTO and DoC,
     press releases, bulletins and information about the BBS,
     special notices when applicable and informational reports.

          1.1) News

               - Press releases
            - Information on basic facts about patents or         
              trademarks

          1.2) Bulletins

               - Introduction to the BBS system
               - How to use BBS, settings etc..
               - Rules of the BBS
               - Special maintenance schedules
               - Scheduled downtimes
               - Enhancements to BBS

       1.3) Reports

               - Technology Assessment & Forecast reports
               - PTO reports of interest
               - DoC reports
               - User reports about the BBS & Responses

     2.0) Services & Products Submenu

     This submenu describes the services and products available
to the user.  These products can range from paper reports, copies
of patents and trademarks, electronic data files, tape files,
CD-ROM products, etc. 
     Brochures give the contact telephone numbers and addresses
for these available services and products.

          2.1) Services
               - Brief description of PKWARE (PKUnzip) software
               - Function of Patent Copy Sales
               - Function of Public Search Room


          2.2) Products & Brochures
               - Office of Electronic Information Products &      
                 Services (OEIPS)
               - Office of Data Base Administration (ODBA)
               - Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF)

    3.0) Patent Information Submenu

     This submenu provides information about patents.  This
information includes the front pages to the weekly Official
Gazette, weekly issues files that contain those patents issued
for a particular week, files containing weekly expired patent
numbers and a cumulative file and the yearly patent fee schedule.

          3.1) Expired Patents Files
            - Expired Patent Files for a particular issue week
            - Cumulative Expired Patents File

          3.2) Official Gazette Notices (OG)
               - the front pages to the weekly patent Official    
                 Gazette

          3.3) Patent Weekly Issues Files
               - Weekly Issues File for patents that were issued
                 for the particular week. The PTO BBS maintains   
                 in ZIP format three months of weekly issue files.

     4.0) Files to Download Submenu

     This submenu contains various large files that have been
compressed for downloading purposes and includes software to
uncompress files.

       4.1) Patent Weekly Issue files

       4.2) OG Notices for patents and trademarks

       4.3) Miscellaneous files including pkunzip software,
attorney's roster, weekly and cumulative expired patents, and
Manual of Patent Examining Procedure.

     5.0) Utilities Submenu

     This submenu contains information about the user and the
     users information as it relates to their connection to the
     BBS, the users PC, download protocols, graphics capabilities,
     etc.

          5.1) Alter User Parameters
          5.2) Display User Parameters
          5.3) Change Password
          5.4) Register with SYSOP

     6.0) Directory Information Submenu

     This submenu contains location and phone contacts within
     the PTO and DoC. This will be for such things as PTO
     information number, who to call for a patent application, etc.

          6.1) PTO Contacts Manual
          6.2) PTDL Phone Book
          6.3) DoC Phone Book
          6.4) BBS Data Base Directory
          6.5) APS PTDL Contacts

     7.0) Trademark Information Submenu

     This submenu provides information about trademarks.  The
information provided is the front pages to the weekly Trademark
Official Gazette.

          7.1) OG Notices
         - Front pages to the weekly Trademark Official Gazette

     8.0) Help Submenu

     This submenu contains a PTO BBS user's guide and other
helpful instructions.

     9.0) Electronic Mail

     This submenu allows users to electronically communicate with

       9.1) Enter a message
       9.2) Kill a message
       9.3) Read a message
       9.4) Scan messages
-- 
Carl Oppedahl AA2KW  
Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers)
Yorktown Heights, NY  
voice 212-777-1330  


-- 
Carl Oppedahl AA2KW  
Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers)
Yorktown Heights, NY  
voice +1-212-777-1330