The PTO’s ethics rules state that agency personnel may not use “office access to email and the internet…for engaging in any activity that would discredit USPTO” or “for prohibited discriminatory conduct.” And its “Rules of the Road” for the Internet and PTO computer systems prohibit use of “USPTO resources to store or transmit offensive material.”
Is the PTO ignoring those rules when PTO personnel use its computer systems to circulate materials mocking individual patent applicants? That’s part of what this FOIA request aims to uncover:
Stay tuned for any “Hyatt Images” the PTO produces.