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View of southern Arlington, VA

My home address is close to the USPTO, about 5 minutes walk to the "main search room". I live in "The Hampton", one of the older apartment buildings in south Arlington at the northeast corner of the intersection of Eads Street and 15th Street South. The buildeng is easily seen in close-up aerial views by Mapquest (see below). Thanks to my proximity, I can conduct searches using the USPTO facilities easily and quickly during their regular hours: M-F 8am-8pm for the main search room between CP3 and CP4 (Crystal Plaza 3 and 4). However, I spend a significant amount of time for each search doing my "homework" before using the USPTO facilities, including laying out my search, locating and contacting knowledgable examiners, identifying terminology, technology trends, etc. My home address is: 1425 Eads Street, #607 Arlington, VA 22202 My phone number is: 703-685-3663 The best way to reach me is by e-mail: franlorin@mail.com

Aerial Perspective View of South Arlington Area

This is an aerial perspective view of the area of south Arlington showing my residence, the USPTO, part of Washington, DC, part of the Potomac River and part of "Restaurant Row" at 23rd Street South. The Washington and Jefferson Monuments are visible at the upper portion, left of center. The Pentagon is out of view to the top left. The foreground shows south Arlington's many single-family dwellings. Eads Street is lined with tall buildings including apartment and office buildings and several hotels. Along the southwest side of Eads Street are a set of three large apartment buildings (Crystal Houses I and II and Crystal Tower, Charles E. Smith management) placed at 45° angles relative to the surrounding buildings. My apartment building is reddish-colored and is caddy-corner to the plus-shaped apartment building roughly above and to the left of the center of the image. I live on the 6th floor of my apartment building facing northeast. Looking out through my balcony, I can see part of the Pentagon and the tall buildings of Rosslyn located about 10-15 miles away. On the morning of September 11, 2001 as I was working in my apartment, planning to extend my patent search services to the NYC area, about 9am, I heard and felt the impact of the exposion of the attack on the Pentagon. About 20-30 minutes earlier, I was called by a friend to watch CNN about two attacks on the WTC in NYC. After the impact on the Pentagon, I saw flames shoot out from the portion of the Pentagon clearly in my view. The experience was unforgettable and somewhat surreal. It is now 2003, nearly 2 years later and, after the long and difficult set-back, I am again planning to offer patent search services to NYC, but now I also offer my expertise in writing applications and am extending my services throughout the US and international markets.

Aerial Plan View of South Arlington Area

This is an aerial view of the south Arlinton, VA area showing my residence and the USPTO. Route 395 extends left-right at the top of the image; it goes into Washington DC at the top right and eventually meets the Capitol Beltway (US Routes 95 and 495) at its southwest corner. Route 1 that extends from the far northeast US to Key West in Florida, passes through the image from top to bottom. The USPTO is on the right side. My apartment is "pointed to" by the plus-shaped building located at the lower left of the image. My building is between Route 1 and Eads Street. Also, 15th street that has a tree-lined divider passes along one side of "The Hampton". On the side of "The Hampton", opposite 15th Street, is an unmistakable two-story aging hotel called the "Americana" Hotel. This is a popular spot for "Rolling Thunder" participants during Memorial Day weekends.

Map of South Arlington Area

This map shows the area of south Arlington including my residence and the USPTO. The yellow and blue line metro (subway) passes through this area with stops at Crystal City (Clark Way and 18th Street South; this is the closest metro station to the USPTO) and Pentagon City (Hayes Street and 12th Street South). Washington National (Reagan) Airport is at the lower right of the map; there is another metro station there.