Here's more on rumors coming out of the Patent and Trademark Office.
PAM is the PTO's hoped-for system to automate patent processing.

Greg Aharonian
Internet Patent News Service
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	Don't know the real answer, but if it is in anyway related,
	did you know that on Tuesday the PTO announced it had killed/
	temporarily suspended/postponed the RFP it had issued for PAM?
	The submission date for the RFP had been moved progessively later
	from June/July, and was - until Tuesday - to have been early
	October.  Now the office has indicated that, at best, a new RFP
	will issue next spring.  A number of companies have been furtively
        working away at responses to the RFP since April/May.  Many hours and
	countless dollars have been spent in designing a system for PAM,
	only to have the project abandoned.  Moreover, one of the handicaps
	in working on this RFP was that the PTO has *never* responed to
	the 200+ questions posed, within the proscribed time and by
	the correct method, by the different companies electing to
	submit proposals.  And all the work on EASY has, of course, led
	to nothing as EASY is the "front end" for PAM, i.e., electronic
	submission of applications.  Finally, the rumour I'm hearing is
	that PTO will use the funds earmarked for PAM to "...improve the
	collection of foreign patents."