USPTO site asks for Quicktime Plug-in which I already have installed. Why?

Question

Whenever I try to watch the images of a patent in the USPTO site (example) using Firefox, the browser asks me to download the latest Quicktime, manually. This is totally strange because I already HAVE the latest plug-in (it even appears on my Firefox add-ons list).

In the past I have only been able to see patent images using Safari. But never with Firefox. Is it a USPTO problem or a Mozilla one? Is there a way to fix the problem?

edit: I can't see TIFF images neither with Internet Explorer (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions) nor with Chrome. All these browsers don't know how to open embedded TIFF images because they don't recognize the installed Quicktime plugin. A USPTO conspiracy to promote Safari? Come to think of it, I had this problem in my old computer as well. It had a 32-bit Vista OS, now I have 64-bit Windows 7. I hate TIFF and can't find Mozilla-specific information anywhere.. Arghh, am I the only one here with this freak problem?!

Answer 1

I had the same issue.

• Go to the QuickTime control panel.
• On the "Browser" tab, click on the "MIME Settings..." button.
• Expand the "Images - Still image files" node and make sure "TIFF image" is checked.
• Close the "MIME types" window and the "QuickTime Preferences" window by clicking on OK.
• Restart Firefox.

After doing this, I could see the TIFF images on the USPTO site.

Answer 2

I had same issue, running on Snow Leopard, Safari 4 and FF 3.6

In your example, the separated TIFF image can be found here, which behaves oddly in Safari but I still can't open in Firefox. In either way I can download the TIFF and see the file from my desktop.

Here you can test if the problem is in your plugin or the website. In my case, it was USPTO to blame. At very least they're quite outdated, but it's not an issue in the HTML itself. I'd bet it's on the .DImg script, but it could also be something in the plugin (mine is 7.6.3) or even FF 3.6. It's certainly some standard deviation issue, as the developer of another TIFF plugin for mac also had issues 2 years ago with FF 3.6 alone (unlike you, it seems).

Well, if you're on Windows, you can try alternatiff. Another option would be to install Google Docs Viewer extension, if you enjoy gDocs. I think there's still no fixes for this, and it does seem some people don't have that problem at all.

Updates to come as I find more info. intrigued

edit: Sorry, couldn't find anything more. This will likely be eventually fixed in future releases, I'd stick with using Safari or downloading the image in the meantime. Just as another side note, it also does not work on Google Chrome.

Answer 3

^{Update: it seems my email to the USPTO's webmaster already had the erroneous newlines removed from (some?) of the pages I tested earlier! That kind of obsoletes this answer -- let's see if it's indeed true, or just a coincidence.}

The TIFF images are included in the web pages using something like^†:

<embed src="/.DImg?Docid=07574389&PageNum=1&IDKey=5D8E82D5603F
&ImgFormat=tif" width="570" height="840" type=image/tiff></embed>

This often/sometimes has a newline within the URL (and the type attribute is badly quoted as well). For Safari on a Mac, it is sufficient to get rid of that erroneous newline. Here's a bookmarklet to do just that (easily bookmark it from here):

javascript:(function(){function%20loadJQuery(onload){if(typeof%20jQuery!='undefined'){onload();}else{var%20h=document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0],s=document.createElement('script'),loaded=false;s.type='text/javascript';s.src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.js';s.onload=s.onreadystatechange=function(){if(!loaded&&(!this.readyState||this.readyState=='loaded'||this.readyState=='complete')){loaded=true;onload();}};h.appendChild(s);}}loadJQuery(function(){$jq=jQuery.noConflict();$jq('embed').attr('src',function(){return%20this.src.replace(/\\n/,'');})})})()

Maybe this is just enough for Firefox as well, if the proper plugin has been installed following the instructions at USPTO's "Plugins - TIFF images". If so, then using Greasemonkey one can run the JavaScript automatically for each page.

^{† Note that the URLs are not valid forever; when expired you might get another TIFF image telling you something like "Search Time Limit Has Expired. Please click on the Full Text button to return to the full text page." I've also seen images for which the server did not return a value for Content-Length, but I fail to find such images now. Maybe one out of multiple servers is behaving odd?}

---

As an aside, at "Patent Full-Page Images" USPTO explains why TIFF is used:

PTO's full-page images [..] are stored and delivered at full 300 dots per inch (d.p.i.) resolution in an image file format called "TIFF," using CCITT Group 4 compression. This is the format which is required by the international standards to which all patent offices must conform. [..] Unfortunately, due to the volume of the image data, available funding, and other technical considerations, PTO cannot convert these images to a format more popular on the Web either permanently or by converting on-the-fly as they are delivered.

As a result, you must install and use a browser plug-in [..] in order to view these files directly. An alternative method is to use third-party software or services to view these images either directly or after conversion to another format, such as Adobe® PDF.

The plug-in you use cannot be just any TIFF image plug-in. It must be able to specifically display TIFF files using ITU T.6 or CCITT Group 4 (G4) compression.

So, one must use a plug-in. Or must one?

While USPTO may not be able to convert on the fly, why shouldn't you do that? If one manages to find an online TIFF converter then the bookmarklet is easily changed to use that...

Answer 4

I was also experiencing issues with USPTO using latest Safari.

My humble workaround (that works!) is that after I enter the patent number and then click to see the 'Images' I simply open the 'Activity' window (under Safari 'Window') and find the 'tiff' file and double click on it. Voilà, the images open in a new window.

Answer 5

I've been fighting with similar problems; the QT plugin for FireFox can't handle embedded MP3s ever since I upgraded past FireFox v3x to versions 4, 5, 6, etc. After doing a bit of research, it appears to be a 64-bit vs 32-bit issue: the QT plug-in is only 32-bit, and doesn't work properly in 64-bit mode. As to why QuickTime hasn't made a proper 64-bit plug-in yet, who can say? In the interim, if you switch to 32-bit mode, everything should display properly. This is no help to those of us designing sites that require this functionality (as the end-users will just assume it's a problem with our sites when the real culprit is QuickTime) but it should allow you to view the content you seek. Hope this helps!

Answer 6

Go to the Mozilla plugins site and download Aspator 1.103 – problem solved.

Answer 7

Commercial solution (some say it degrades after 15 days to a free viewer, else costs $49)
Accel ViewTIFF Plug-in:

Accel ViewTIFF is a Windows and Macintosh compatible plug-in and Active X Control for viewing TIFF images on most Internet web browsers.

Windows: Accel ViewTIFF works well with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Netscape. Macintosh: Accel ViewTIFF works well with Firefox, Opera and Safari ver 1 and 2*.

Users of Firefox 3.6 (Mac only) have reported a problem which we are ardently working to resolve.

Answer 8

Windows users can install the free Alternatiff plugin from here: www.alternatiff.com.

The suggested solution above about enabling TIFF in quicktime doesn't work anymore in Windows.

Answer 9

I just ran into this issue. I could not get Quick Time to work properly. I even reinstalled Quick Time with the latest. So I found this page at the USPTO: TIF Plugin Info. I was able to get Alternatiff and it installed very painlessly. It is 500K versus 36M from Apple QuickTime. It also worked! It is free and does not have Quicktime nagware about upgrading to Pro. It also does not have teaser options that cost money.

Alternatiff does what software is supposed to do: just work. No hidden installs, no rewriting a significant portion of your MIME types, just a simple TIFF viewer.

Answer 10

I found the aspator addon for Firefox, which seems to solve the problem of viewing USPTO patent images.