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back to article Christmas comes early at US Patent office after massive IT outage

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 …

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  1. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Good. More time for goofing off, writing scientific papers unrelated to work

    It's happened before, in 1905.

    10 0 Reply
    1. Winkypop Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Re: Good. More time for goofing off, writing scientific papers unrelated to work

      A relatively good time..true

      6 0 Reply
    2. ecofeco Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Good. More time for goofing off, writing scientific papers unrelated to work

      Generally speaking.

      1 0 Reply
  2. P. Lee

    Major power outage.

    A good time to wipe log entries, even if its just the one, eh Juniper?

    4 0 Reply
  3. raving angry loony

    Meanwhile...

    In other news, the USPTO being unable to issue crappy patents for a few days resulted in a net gain to U.S. and other businesses as they didn't have to defend themselves from the increasingly meaningless bullshit that USPTO is becoming famous for.

    19 0 Reply
  4. lawndart

    Noooooooo

    Now I won't be able to file for a patent on "A method of extending official government holiday periods by utilizing massive IT outages" until the new year!

    13 0 Reply
    1. Mark 85
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      Re: Noooooooo

      They already filed that one for themselves although judging from the ON-CALL articles we've had, there might be prior art.

      4 0 Reply
  5. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Did you Google when the staff party was held inhouse? Accidental drink spillage BofH?

    3 0 Reply
    1. Captain Scarlet
      Reply Icon

      I think the BOFH would use it to cover something major up (As obviously anything power related requires someone from IT to turn the things off and on *SIGH*)

      1 0 Reply
    2. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects
      Reply Icon

      > Did you Google rounded oblongs when the staff party was held inhouse? Accidental drink spillage BofH?

      ftfy.

      0 0 Reply
  6. Mage Silver badge
    Coat

    the applications used by patent examiners

    Ha ha!

    4 0 Reply
  7. phuzz Silver badge
    IT Angle

    Christmas for who?

    Extra holiday for everyone but the IT staff, who will presumably be spending their 'holidays' trying to resurrect hardware that lost power and let the magic smoke out, while everyone else gets drunk on egg nog.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Swarthy
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Re: Christmas for who?

      The IT staff spending this time working like mad...and getting double (holiday+working) time for their pains. I'd say it counts as Christmas for them, too.

      1 0 Reply
  8. TeeCee Gold badge
    Trollface

    You know what this means?

    They don't know that there already is such a thing as a UPS!!!

    Off to file a patent and get very rich......

    3 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: You know what this means?

      UPS systems just save up all the bad luck until they're full, then they explode or catch fire.

      They improve 'up time' in the short term, then your building is evacuated for a month while they wipe battery acid off the ceiling, and blood off the floor.

      Pointless. Absolutely pointless. The 'Symantec' of hardware.

      3 3 Reply
    2. Mage Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: You know what this means?

      They use UPS all the time. As a courier.

      3 0 Reply
  9. Roo
    Windows

    No need for them to shut the office down for an IT fail...

    All they need in their day to day grind is a rubber stamp judging by the patents they grant.

    2 0 Reply
    1. Tom 13
      Reply Icon

      Re: No need for them to shut the office down for an IT fail...

      Yes, but as a cost saving measure all the rubber stamps have been replaced with computer controlled virtual ones.

      0 0 Reply
  10. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    I don't like to wish a loss of data on anybody but there are times to make exceptions and this could be one. Just think, if all those ....with a computer and .....with a mobile phone patents were lost for ever.

    0 0 Reply
  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hey, this is serious. Without access to their workstations, how can the Patent Examiners search Encarta '97 for prior art?

    3 0 Reply
    1. ecofeco Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      HA!

      0 0 Reply
  12. kain preacher

    Are we sure that that this was an accident

    0 0 Reply
  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've just got a US Patent on Downtime

    The unanticipated outage of any computer system (including those with rounded corners) is now something I own the rights to.

    You all owe me millions I tell you ... MILLIONS!

    2 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I've just got a US Patent on Downtime

      I'm sorry but your "downtime" appears to have rounded corners, so unfortunately for you but according to USPTO ......

      0 0 Reply
  14. Stevie

    Bah!

    <mode= puzzled> But aren't the USPO computers powered by perpetual motion?

    0 0 Reply

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