IP Lawyers to USPTO: Not So Fast Internetnews.com is reporting that the National Intellectual Property Researchers Association (NIPRA) has filed suit to prevent the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) from completing the transition from paper to electronic public search systems. Citing substantial data error rates in the automated patent and trademark databases and "hundreds of thousands of missing or corrupt entries in the USPTO search systems," the NIPRA wants the USPTO to hold off on dismantling the paper-based search systems until these problems have been addressed.