Patent Information Users Group Annual Meeting

The Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) has put out a call for papers for its 2006 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, May 20-25. Formed in 1988, PIUG is a volunteer organization for patent information professionals dedicated to the improvement of the retrieval, analysis and dissemination of patent information worldwide.

One of the themes of this year's conference is the role of patents in academic research, teaching and technology transfer. In the last 20 years the number of patents granted to universities and public research institutions has increased dramatically. The National Science Foundation notes in its Science and Engineering Indicators 2004 that while the output of scientific publications has been relatively flat in the U.S. since 1992, the number of academic patents and citations to patents in scholarly articles has increased ten-fold. Although there is much debate on the value of patents as a means of disseminating scholarly research, patents are increasingly important to the worldwide academic community. This session will explore how patent information is being used by university researchers, instructors, librarians and technology transfer officers.

Possible topics include:

• Patent information services and collections
  
• Profiles of academic patent information users
  
• Collaboration and cooperation between university libraries and tech transfer offices
  
• Patent information education, training and tutorials
  
• New tools and technologies for delivering patent information, e.g. in-house databases, RSS feeds, Blogs
  
• Searching patents in literature databases such as SciFinder Scholar
  
• Academic patenting, licensing and commercialization philosophies

I encourage you to submit a proposal for this or any other session. Instructions for submitting a proposal are at the end of this message. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about PIUG or the scope of the session. The deadline for submitting a proposal is January 30, 2006.

Thank you,
Michael White
Co-Chair, Patent Information in Academia - 2006 PIUG Conference

Michael J. White, Librarian for Research Services, BA, MLIS
Engineering and Science Library
Douglas Library Bldg., Room 516
Queen's University
93 University Ave., Kingston, Ontario K7L 5C4
(613) 533-6785 / (613) 533-2584 (fax)
michael.white@queensu.ca

Categories

PIUG 2006 Annual Conference - An International Conference For Patent Information Professionals

Patent Information: Overcoming Pitfalls and Enhancing Productivity

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the 2006 PIUG Annual Conference - Patent Information: Overcoming Pitfalls and Enhancing Productivity. The conference will take place from Saturday, May 20 to Thursday, May 25, 2006, at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, 1300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, (612) 370-1450, www.hyattregencyminneapolis.com.

We are particularly interested to hear from information users within corporations, patent offices, law firms, universities and contractors who are able to discuss one of the following topics:

• Purpose of the Information Scientist/Analyst
  • Positioning group within business - what is it, improving image, getting recognition, how to improve, why
    
  • Business impact of searcher/analyst's work
    
  • Position with client - improving interaction, building trust, getting referrals, repeat business, becoming proactive vs reactive, becoming part of the R&D, etc. teams, becoming a reliable source of information, not just a searcher
    
  • Client interview - a major step in client interaction, improving trust and providing better searches
    
  • Competing with free sources - convincing upper management of benefit of value added sources; proving worth of value added sources; when to use free databases
    
  • Collecting metrics
  
  
• How to Accomplish Better Searches and Reports
  
  • Examples of software (BizInt, STN Express, etc.) used to format results
    
  • Alternatives to well-known vendors/databases for conducting the search, including free web-based services (possibly advantages of specific country Esp@cenet sites)
    
  • Searching tips and techniques
    
  • Macros or programs you have written to format results, write reports or just make jobs easier
    
  • Philosophies on searching, screening, analysis, report writing
    
  • Comparison of search output/reports for different clients or types of search
    
  • Tips and techniques
    
  • Case studies
    
  • Applying software tools, e.g. patent mapping software, to enhance or visualize search results
    
  • Practical solutions to current searching/analysis challenges
  
  
• Mechanical/Device Searching
  
  • Examples from various companies - business case studies
    
  • Solutions to challenges specific to mechanical/device searching and how to overcome them
    
  • Moving into the 21st Century; new products and solutions for non-chemical searching
• Patent Information in Academia
  
  • Patenting philosophies and trends
    
  • Licensing opportunities and alliances
  
  
• Current Events: Challenges and Pitfalls
  
  • Implications and impact of IPC8 to information professional and legal
    
  • Implementation of new technology
    
  • Claims analysis tools
    
  • Chemical Information - future of Markush and substructure searching
    
  • Primer on US Patent Law for patent searchers
    
  • Pie-in-the-sky ideas (identifying new solutions to complex problems)
  
  
• Current Events: Patent Offices
  
  • Trilateral agreement
    
  • International patent classifications
    
  • Current events at US, EP, and PCT offices
    
  • Note: Speakers do NOT need to be employees of a patent office; we are looking for knowledgeable, well-spoken speakers who can address these topics regardless of who their employers are.

Papers on other topics are also desirable, for example, papers highlighting specific tips and techniques for doing patent/literature research or analysis, and papers falling into one or more of the following general categories:

• Expert Patent Searching
  
• Strategic Issues
  
• Business Impact of Patent Information
  
• Case Studies

If these or related themes fall into your area of expertise then we would like to hear from you!

Please send your:
Proposed speaker name
Brief biography
Full contact information
Presentation title
Abstract

to Barbara.L.Burg@gsk.com on or before January 30, 2006, for full consideration.

If you think you may be interested in speaking but require management approval beforehand, please let us know so that we can begin to consider your general proposal for a paper in the meantime (submission of just a few descriptive sentences will be sufficient).

The organisers reserve the right to accept abstracts at their discretion in order to assemble the best possible program. Invited speakers may take precedence over other speakers. Please be advised that your abstract submission may be published on the Internet or elsewhere, shortly after receipt or at any time thereafter. Therefore, do not include confidential or business-sensitive information in your abstract.

If you would like to make a recommendation for a speaker on a particular topic or suggest another topic of interest, we would appreciate hearing from you. Please do not hesitate to contact the 2006 PIUG Annual Conference organisers with your views.

Further news about the program and updates regarding the conference will be posted on the PIUG Discussion List and on the PIUG web site at www.piug.org. To join the discussion list please visit PIUG Discussion List Archives.

Best regards,
Program Committee Co-chairs
Barbara Burg
Terri Dockter
John Arenivar
Tony Arleth