The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has suffered a “major power outage” that has led it to effectively declare and extended, early, Christmas.
“A major power outage at USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, occurred Wednesday, Dec. 22,” the agency reports, “resulting in damaged equipment that required the subsequent shutdown of many of our online and IT systems.”
Filing, searching, and payment systems are all down, as are the applications used by patent examiners. Faxes are also off the agenda for a while: the agency can’t receive them.
Original source: The Register
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