The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Friday launched a new e-filing system that allows patents to be submitted online. Unlike the previous online system, the new PDF-based e-filing system features complete support for Mac OS X.
“The great news for Apple is that USPTO listened to its customers and integrated Mac OS X and Safari support into its new e-filing system,” Susan Prescott Apple’s vice president of Pro Markets, told Macworld. “Innovators around the world use Macs.”
Part of Mac OS X’s core technology is an integrated PDF engine that allows users to easily work with documents based on this format. With the implementation of the new e-filing system, Apple has basically gone from not being supported to being one the best supported operating systems available.
“Right from the operating system you can easily print, save, search and manage PDF documents, including the electronic files for the patent office,” said Prescott.
While Apple said they played a support role in the implementation of the new system, making sure there were no roadblocks to implementing support for Mac OS X, it was demand from customers that led to the support from the USPTO.
“Mac OS X has the most complete PDF integration of any operating system,” said Prescott. “That is a really strong and important point and one that we are really proud of. This an example of how a technology that is useful for consumers is also ideally suited to meet the needs of our professional customers, as well.”