A major power outage at USPTO headquarters occurred Tuesday, December 22, resulting in damaged equipment that shutdown our IT systems. This includes our filing, searching and payment systems used by customers and examiners across the country.
Since the incident occurred, teams including USPTO employees, contractors, and third party service providers have been working around the clock to diligently repair damaged equipment and restore power. Systems are slowly being returned to service today with a goal of bringing all systems online and operational Monday morning, December 28.
die status-seite finde ich vorbildlich und es gibt sogar rss-feeds über die updates zur aktuellen störung http://www.uspto.gov/blog/ebiz/