For the first time in 17 years, the US Government has closed its doors, following unsuccessful attempts between Congressional Republicans and Democrats to agree on a fiscal year 2014 budget prior to the September 30 close of fiscal year 2013.

The shutdown means that some 800,000 government employees who are considered non-essential have been furloughed. The closure includes the US Copyright Office but – for the moment, at least – not the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

“Due to the lapse in government funding, the US Copyright Office is closed, as is the greater Library of Congress,” said a notice posted on the copyright.gov website. “As such, the office is unable to update the information on this website, respond to inquiries, or process transactions.”

The copyright office did continue to accept registration submissions for the purpose of securing date of receipt, but it was expected that the submissions would not be processed until the office reopened.

The USPTO, however, has remained open during the shutdown, relying on funding from other sources, including fees paid for registration. “The USPTO has sufficient funds from other than FY14 appropriations to continue full operations for approximately 4 weeks,” the office said. “Therefore, all 11,789 employees of the USPTO will be excepted for approximately up to four weeks following a lapse in appropriations.”

The announcement by the USPTO said that its employees will ensure the functionality of processes and systems “minimally necessary for the preservation of patent rights,” to allow compliance with statutory provisions that cannot be waived, and avoid disclosures of information that would be detrimental to the national security. Additionally, the excepted employees will ensure the functionality of processes and systems minimally necessary to preserve trademark rights.

“Preventing the public from accessing the USPTO’s electronic filing and payments systems may result in the complete or partial loss of intellectual property,” the announcement continued. “Therefore, in order to prevent the loss of valuable intellectual property, these systems should remain open during any closure of the USPTO.”

As this issue of Asia IP went to press, the government had been shut down for nearly two weeks.