USPTO Customer Number System & Three-Layer Evidence Chain

Litman v. Goldberg — Memo for Counsel

Summary

The "Attorney, Agent, or Firm" line (Line 74) on issued patents is not typed manually for each patent. It is automatically populated from the firm's USPTO Customer Number database. Understanding this system strengthens the case for firm control and direction.

1. The USPTO Customer Number System

The key database is the USPTO Customer Number system inside USPTO prosecution systems:

Patent Center (current)
PAIR (older, still a data source)
Patent Examination Data System (PEDS) (underlying data)

Every patent application has a Customer Number assigned for:

Field	Meaning
Customer Number	Identifies the law firm
Attorney list	Names tied to that customer number
Correspondence address	Where USPTO sends mail
Practitioner numbers	Registered attorneys

When the patent issues, the system automatically prints the names associated with that customer number on the front page.

The exact database field is Attorney / Agent / Firm (AAT), which pulls from the Customer Number Attorney List.

2. Why This Matters for the Case

If Litman's name appears as:

Nath, Goldberg & Meyer; Richard C. Litman

that means the firm's Customer Number record still included his name.

That does not happen automatically. Someone with access to the firm's customer number had to:

add him
keep him active
not remove him

That strongly indicates firm control of the listing.

3. The Three-Layer Evidence Chain

Taken together, these three layers form a clear commercial narrative:

Layer 1 — Website (Marketing)

nathlaw.com listed Litman as "RICHARD C. LITMAN, PATENT ATTORNEY" on the Professionals page
Name, photo, biography, title — commercial representation to clients
Evidence: Wayback screenshots in evidence/website/

Layer 2 — Patent Prosecution (Government Records)

Patents show: Attorney, Agent or Firm: Nath, Goldberg & Meyer; Richard C. Litman
Official USPTO publications, connected to client inventions, under the firm's name
Evidence: 12 overlap patents (Exhibit A), 905 patents since 6/15/2020

Layer 3 — Operational Control (Firm Systems)

Those patent entries come from the firm's USPTO Customer Number database
The customer number record determines: which attorneys are listed, correspondence address, firm name on patents
Only someone with access to that firm record can maintain that list
Evidence: CN-37833 (NGM custody) — see LITMAN_DEFENSE_REPORT.md exemplar patents

4. Patent Clusters Prove Systematic Use

Many patents with Litman's name appear in large clusters on the same issue date.

That pattern usually means:

the same docket pipeline
the same customer number
the same attorney-of-record data

This indicates systematic use, not a one-off clerical error.

Top Clusters (from 905 patents since 6/15/2020)

Issue Date	Patent Count	Note
2024-04-30	48	Same pipeline
2024-06-04	32	Same pipeline
2024-05-07	30	Same pipeline
2024-03-19	28	Same pipeline
2024-04-16	28	Same pipeline
2024-02-20	26	Same pipeline
2024-03-12	25	Same pipeline
2024-05-14	24	Same pipeline
2024-05-21	17	Example from feedback
2020-08-04	9	Early cluster

Full cluster data: output/PATENT_CLUSTERS_BY_ISSUE_DATE.csv — 182 unique issue dates, 48 dates with 5+ patents.

5. Discovery Targets

Customer Number Data (Internal USPTO / Firm)

From the Customer Number database, discovery can show:

The customer number used by Goldberg's firm
The attorney list tied to that customer number
The dates Litman's name remained associated
The applications linked to that number

Sources to request:

Patent Center / PAIR records for applications in the overlap set
PEDS (Patent Examination Data System) data
Firm records: who has access to the firm's USPTO customer number; who added, maintained, or removed names from the attorney list

PatentsView / USPTO ODP (Public) — Verification

PatentsView is migrating to the USPTO Open Data Portal (March 2026). Use your ODP API key from data.uspto.gov with scripts/verify_odp_litman.py. The file PATENTSVIEW_VERIFICATION_LITMAN.csv outputs the verified 905 list; post-migration, ODP may add independent count + assignee data.

Patent Grant Bibliographic XML (Public)

USPTO publishes Patent Grant Bibliographic XML bulk data. It contains the exact Line-74 attorney data for every patent.

Source: https://bulkdata.uspto.gov/data/patent/grant/redbook/bibliographic/
Use: Extract every patent listing Litman's name, by issue date, assignee, firm
Benefit: Alternative authoritative source; bulk download (many GB) required

6. Why This Is Powerful Evidence

If Litman's name was still attached to the firm's customer number after termination, it shows:

his identity remained in their prosecution infrastructure
patents automatically continued listing him
the firm benefited from that listing

Courts often treat this as strong circumstantial evidence of authorization or control.

7. The Narrative for the Court

Firm marketing → Firm prosecution work → Issued patents listing Litman

That chain ties Goldberg → the firm → the patents → Litman's identity.

It is the kind of pattern judges understand quickly.

File	Description
`LITMAN_DEFENSE_REPORT.md`	Full defense report; CN-37833 exemplar patents
`PATENT_CLUSTERS_BY_ISSUE_DATE.csv`	Full cluster analysis (182 dates)
`MASTER_PATENT_LIST_CHRONOLOGICAL.csv`	905 patents, chronological
`PATENTSVIEW_VERIFICATION_LITMAN.csv`	PatentsView verification (independent count + assignee data)
`SOL_EXHIBIT_LIST_POST_7_21_2024.csv`	12 post-7/21/24 exhibits

Customer Number And Evidence Chain Memo