Cynthia Barcelon Yang - Chair
Doreen Alberts - Vice Chair
Denise Fobare-Deponio - Secretary
Ken Koubek - Treasurer
Suzanne Robins - Immediate Past Chair
Edlyn Simmons - Director at Large
Heidi Stone - Director at Large

PIUG

The International Society for Patent Information

The Patent Information Users Group, Inc. (PIUG) – The International Society for Patent Information is a not-for-profit organization for individuals having a professional, scientific or technical interest in patent information. The mission of PIUG is to support, assist, improve and enhance the success of patent information professionals through leadership, education, communication, advocacy and networking. Through this international forum and discussion, we also promote and improve the retrieval, analysis and dissemination of patent information.

PIUG has over 700 active members representing 27 countries including the United States. The largest concentration of members is from the USA, Europe and Japan. PIUG members are patent attorneys, patent agents, licensing professionals, patent information researchers, patent information vendors, and patent information and documentation experts from the U.S. and abroad.

We have nearly 300 patent information professionals who do patent searching for corporations, over 100 patent information consultants, over 80 patent information professionals who do patent searching for law firms, and about 20 searchers based in academic institutions. We are employed in performing patentability, freedom-to-practice, and validity patent searches for Fortune 500 / multinational companies, leading universities and major IP law firms. In recent years, PIUG members have also engaged in patent information analysis as a strategic innovation tool.

PIUG has an active Discussion Forum that is featured on the PIUG wiki, a global collaborative tool with with nearly 1000 subscribers world-wide and produce a newsletter twice a year. In addition, we have presence in professional and social networking channels, such as LinkedIn and Twitter. The PIUG newsletter contains members' articles, salary survey results, search tips, meeting trip reports, and information on patent database vendor and producer developments. Get to know us and meet the PIUG Officers.

Notice on use of PIUG Name and Logo: No one may use the PIUG name or logo for any promotional or commercial purpose or any other purpose without the prior written consent of the PIUG Board of Directors.

News

March 10, 2010

PIUG 2010 Annual Conference in Baltimore on May 1-6, 2010 – Register Now! - 1 March 2010
The PIUG 2010 Annual Conference is coming up in May. All registration, program and information for attendees, sponsors and exhibitors is now available from the main Annual Conference page. We welcome all to join PIUG and learn from and network with other patent information professionals from around the world,

Join the PIUG Discussion Forum (PIUG-DF) - 1 February 2010
The PIUG Discussion Forum (PIUG-DF) is available to all the global patent information communityt. It is featured on the PIUG wiki, a global collaboration and communication medium. See the Wiki Initial Signup Quick Reference Guide for help and "watch" the PIUG Space and PIUG-DF as explained in the 4.5-minute micro-tutorial available on the Wiki Training Webinars web page.