USPTO.GOV states the following in “Section 2128 “Printed Publications” as Prior Art [R-10.2019]” (updated on 6/25/2020): “An electronic publication, including an online database or Internet publication (e.g., discussion group, forum, digital video, and social media post), is considered to be a “printed publication” within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(a) and (b) provided the publication was accessible to persons concerned with the art to which the document relates.” See: https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2128.html
The legal opinion on IP.com’s publication process by McDermott, Will & Emery states that “Based on the above analysis, it is our opinion that invention disclosures made available on IP.com’s website can be authenticated, satisfy the hearsay rule or the business records exception, and satisfy the requirement of an original in a patent infringement action in federal district court in connection with an assertion of invalidity under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and/or 103.”
Since the IP.com Prior Art Database is available around the world, it would be confusing to list times specific to any particular time zone. Therefore, documents published with IP.com have their times recorded in UTC (Universal Time Coordinated). UTC is a worldwide standard for specifying times. To convert to your local time, you either need to add or subtract hours, depending on your time zone.
In addition to the online maintenance of disclosures, IP.com publishes a monthly printed (i.e. paper-based ‘ non-electronic) publication, The IP.com Journal, available to libraries worldwide. The presence of The IP.com Journal in libraries means that not only do you not need to fear the “electronic-only” publication, but it provides publicly accessible archive copies in the instance the IP.com database becomes unavailable online.
