Q: How many users can I have on one account?
A.   99 plus the administrator user (00). The APLS user ID is your account number followed by a hyphen and two digits. These last two digits are the user number, 00 to 99.  Each user's email, PIN, Name and ID are tracked separately for billing purposes. Your monthly statement will show who created the order as well as the Docket/Reference number they used (if any).

Q: If I select View Previous Orders on the menu and download a patent from an older order again, am I billed for that patent a second time?
A.  NO. If the order is listed, you will NOT be billed if you download a patent or application a second time, or a third or fourth, or even a fifth time!  We make your older orders available as long as we can (resources permitting) for your convenience!  Remember, we provide a service for you, and not just data. We will always have the last 5 business days worth of orders available (at the very least), but we try to keep the last few months available for your convenience!

Q: What is the advantage using the Combine Files feature to create one large document to download instead of all of the individual files I ordered?
A. If the main reason you are ordering the files it to print them, this will save you the time of having to open each patent you ordered and print it individually. If you have an order with 35, 40 or even 50 patents on it, this can save you 15 to 20 minutes, or more (at no additional cost).  Also, see the next question (about printing speed).  If you want all the patent image files separate after you download, try the ZIP files option (an Unzipping program is required on your computer).

Q: Why do TIF files print twice as fast as PDF  files on my HP Laser Jet printers?
A. The Kodak Imaging Software and the Microsoft Fax Viewer (Win XP) found on the accessories menu of most Windows based computers is much more efficient in how it prepares the image data to be sent to the HP laser printer. In our tests of several versions of the Adobe Acrobat Reader (vers. 4, 5 & 6) all of them were very slow at printing PDF image files. We reported this to Adobe back in version 4, but they don't seem to be too concerned about it. Our tests were conducted with HP-4100s, HP-5si, HP-8000s and HP-8100 lasers printing from Win-98, WIN-2000 Pro, and Win-XP, and in all cases with all versions of the Adobe software, the TIF files printed with the Kodak and MS Fax Viewer software printed in LESS THAN HALF THE TIME.

Q: Can two people use the same APLS UserID at the same time?
A.  No.  The APLS system will get totally confused, log both of you off (and may need to visit a shrink). If you need more users on your account, just call and we'll add them (it's easy, and it's free!)

Q: How do you handle correction pages and reexams (how do I order them)?
A.  All post issue documents  (X6, Reexam, etc.) are appended to the original documents when you order them  (at no extra cost). If you know the Reexam (B1) Number, simply order the original patent number and it will be appended to it. If you find we do not have the correction material appended to the original document, please let us know and we will get it for you immediately, free of charge. Also, if you need the B1 document as a separate file, send us email and we will send you the B1 separately.

Q: If my firm buys a large quantity of image files each week, is there a better price we can get? 
A. Yes. Give us a call and you will be pleasantly surprised. The first break is at 200 image files a week. The quantity break on of our printed patents occurs at 300 or more per week.

Q. Why are other providers still asking between $2.00 and $5.00 for a patent image? 
A. We're not absolutely sure. But we suspect it's for one of three reasons:
  1) Because they don't feel lowering prices will gain new clients, and they are hoping current clients won't notice OUR prices.
  2) Even though computer equipment and network costs have spiraled downward over the last 5 years, they have older, more expensive equipment to maintain, and finally,
  3) They purchased the patent inventory when it was five times the price it is now. Technology has reduced the cost of the entire US patent/application inventory from $250,000 down to approximately $40,000 (of course you have to add all the equipment to maintain and serve it, but that is less expensive now, as well). We pass this savings on to you.
  4) There is software you can license that will get the patents for free. Well, not for Free - you have to license the software annually (in many cases) on a per computer basis. 

Q: My docket numbers from APLS didn't show up on my statement as you said they would. What's up?
A. We apologize for that. During our transition to new accounting software we didn't catch it in time. We did, however, include copies of every order with the docket number on each one to help you (we know it want as easy but it's all we could think of at the last minute to assist you). We have it solved. From now on, each line item on your statement which represents a document order will have the first patent number in that order with the docket/Ref# just to the right of it. We understand completely that your job is to ensure that YOUR clients are billed properly for the documents and we know that it is our job to help you by clearly listing each docket with each order! If there is anything else we can do to help, or another format you would like,  PLEASE let us know and we will do our best to assist you. In March we will be adding an online feature to APLS to let you view a list of all APLS orders for the previous month with the docket numbers next to the order number in a clean printable format! - We ARE listening to you! 

Q. What makes your Library Quality printed patents better than other 3 hole punched patents?
A. We use HammerMill FLATSTAK^® brand paper with almost UN-TEAR-ABLE binding edges. The entire 3 hole edge is reinforced the full length of the paper. This is a very high quality paper. It is standard 20 pound thickness and the reinforcement doesn't make it any thinker on that edge (hence Hammermill's brand name "FLATSTAK"). This paper costs almost three times as much as standard 20 pound white laser/copy paper (but it's worth it). If you are assembling a large search report for your client, or you have a series of patents you keep in your library, our Library Quality Patents are for you.  We also print all of our patents at 600 dots per inch using resolution enhancement technology. 

Q. What type of DVD media and burner do you use, and will it be compatible with my DVD reader?
A. We use three brands of DVD recorders: Sony, NEC, and Vivastar. Two of these brands are capable of burning to DVD-R (dash R) and DVD+R (plus R) media, however, we always use a good name brand DVD-R media (dash R) because it is our experience that more of the older DVD readers work better with them. If your reader doesn't like the DVD we send you, we'll create it on a different model of recorder and replace it at no charge . We have had very few problems with media that we have shipped.

Q. Do you sell the entire U.S. Patent Image collection?
A.  Yes, and for far less than the USPTO does. Give us a call and we'll help you out. We can also engineer and provide an in-house system to deliver them throughout your company.

Q. I clicked on the email address for information on your home page, but it doesn't do anything. I had to manually type it in to use it. Why?
A.  The devious people that send out junk email (known as SPAM) now have software that automatically "harvests" email addresses from web sites. We have made our email addresses out of graphics (pictures) instead of the text email address so they can no longer be read by this harvesting software. Someday we will all be sick enough of SPAM to do something about it. Until then, we have to find ways to stop it, or at least slow it down some.

Q. How do some of these companies or web sites give away patents or let us download them for free (or close to free)?
A.  They don't actually have the patents on their web sites. They did not purchase the inventories, nor do they have a paid subscription for the material they sell or give away. They have written software to get the patents from the USPTO and other authorites one page at a time (pretending to be a single user) then they reassemble each page into a multipage patent and let you download them. This why there are sometimes missing pages from these patents, and also why most of them don't do more than a few at a time or limit you to a certain number per order or per day. When the PTO has problems, they do as well (they have no control over the source). This is also why their systems are often much slower and also why most of them don't offer all of the documents in PDF and TIF formats. See the next question for more details.