We will try to accommodate those who have just mailed their registrations. You will be notified by email if space is available. We will return checks, if necessary. Unfortunately we cannot accommodate walk-in registrations for this meeting.
Thanks very much to everyone for the strong interest in this year's PIUG meeting.
Sandra Unger
ssunger@erenj.com
Chair, PIUG
Monday, April 10, 2000
Hello,
This is to keep you informed on the plans being made for the Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) 2000 annual meeting. This note incorporates all available information. Additional information will be posted to the PIUG email list, as it becomes available.
New This Update:
The 2000 PIUG Annual Meeting is Sunday, April 30th to Wednesday, May 3rd in Crystal City, Washington, D.C. Several other organizations are working in cooperation with the PIUG to offer a full week of training opportunities for patent searchers.
Location:
Reservations: 703-418-6800
Please specify that you are attending the PIUG meeting. The hotel provides
meeting room space based on the number of guests staying at the Hilton.
The special PIUG conference rate is $145 per night.
I hope all these plans meet with your approval. We are really trying hard to make this meeting a wonderful opportunity for patent searchers.
I'd like to thank Lucy Akers, Steve Reynolds, Nancy Lambert, Ford Khorsandian, Terri Dockter, Suzanne Robins, Sandy Smith and Barbara Burg for all their hard work in pulling this meeting together.
Further details of the 2000 PIUG annual meeting will be published on the PIUG email list.
PIUG 2000 Meeting Schedule
The preliminary schedule is as follows (all times are approximate and
subject to change).
Sunday, Morning April 30, 2000
Sunday Afternoon
Sunday Evening
Monday, Morning May 1, 2000
Monday Afternoon, (1:30 to 5:00)
Monday Evening
Tuesday Morning, May 2, 2000
Tuesday Afternoon
Tuesday Evening
Wednesday Morning, May 3, 2000
Wednesday Afternoon
Wednesday Evening
--- End PIUG 2000 Annual Meeting ---
Thursday May 4, to Friday May 5, 2000
Derwent Product Showcase
Contact Derwent to register for this meeting
Abstracts for the 2000 PIUG Annual Meeting
Contact Terri A Dockter (TADOCKT@ppco.com) for additions and/or
corrections to the following abstracts.
Chemical Abstracts Class - Sunday, April 30, 9 - 12 noon
"Searching for a Class of Chemical Substances in the Patent Literature"
Kerry G. Stanley, Chemical Abstracts Service
This session will look at a multi-faceted approach to retrieving patents describing a class of chemical substances. Approaches to be described include searching by structure for specific compounds or for those described generically in a Markush structure. Additionally searching by nomenclature and searching using alphanumeric fragment code systems will be described, as well as techniques for consolidating the multifile results. STN files such as REGISTRY, CAplus, MARPAT, USPATFULL, IFI Claims and WPI will be highlighted using STN Express search software.
To Register, contact the CAS Training Assistant at:
Phone: 800-848-6538, ext. 3549
E-mail: wksp@cas.org
Web: www.cas.org/supp.html
IFI Claims Patent Services presentation
Harry M. Allcock has been employed with IFI Claims Patent Services for the past 38 years.
Title: New Ownership - Enhancements and Expansions
IFI was purchased by Aspen Publishers, Inc. on September 1, 1999, and is
currently operating as a division of Aspen Law and Business, which is also
a Wolters Kluwer company. During the last six months we have expanded the
PATENT INTELLIGENCE AND TECHNOLOGY REPORT to include a PC-based monthly
version as well as a ten year retrospective file using the CURRENT US
classification codes and Standard Industry Codes. All company names
appearing in this Report are standardized. The IFI indexing procedures
have been enhanced to include several forms of automatic and systematic
indexing, and these changes will be reviewed. Other topics such as
structure coded input to the IFI databases will be discussed, along with
the IFI concordance of IPC to US classification.
Patent Assignee Session
Searching patent assignees is complicated by two issues: First, companies can file patents under a variety of names (e.g., different subsidiaries); and second, company names can undergo changes over time, sometimes because of mergers and acquisitions. An excellent example is Aventis, formerly Hoechst Marion Roussel, formerly Marion Merrell Dow, etc. Edlyn Simmons will present a chronology of this company's history of name changes. Monica Reider of IFI Claims Patent Services, Mark Bauer of Derwent information, and Steve Boyer of IBM will describe how their databases standardize company names and/or assign company codes. Each will trace through how their databases have indexed Aventis and its predecessors. They will then take part in a panel discussion with Kerry Stanley of CAS, Judy Hickey of Micropatent, and Thuy Ledinh or David Dickens of Questel-Orbit, with audience participation, on issues raised and plans for the future.
Panel Participants and biographies:
| Harry M. Allcock | |
| Vice President of IFI CLAIMS Patent Services at their Wilmington, North Carolina, office. He has headed up IFI for the past 38 years. | 102 Eastwood Road Wilmington, NC 28403 910-392-0068 910-392-0240 Fax 800-368-3093 allcock@ificlaims.com |
| Edlyn S. Simmons | |
| Section Head of Business Intelligence Services at the Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Previously she was for many years the Manager of the Patent Information Group in the Patent Department of Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc. In addition, she has been a registered U.S. patent agent since 1977, and has lectured and published extensively in the field of chemical and patent information. | Procter & Gamble Company 5299 Spring Grove Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45217 (513) 627-5664 (513) 627-6854 (fax) simmons.es@pg.com |
| Monica Rieder | |
| IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, now a subsidiary of Aspen Publishers, as Senior Indexer/Editor at their Wilmington, Delaware, office. Monica has worked as indexer and editor for IFI for 24 years and is responsible for tracing assignee histories and creating and assignee IFI's assignee codes. | IFI CLAIMS Patent Services 3202 Kirkwood Highway, Suite 203 Wilmington, DE 19808 302-998-0478 |
| Mark Bauer | |
| Online Account Executive for Derwent Information in their Alexandria, Virginia. office. He worked as a discovery chemist at DuPont Agricultural Products before getting into information as a literature scientist at Merck & Co. | Derwent Information Inc. 1725 Duke St Suite 250 Alexandria, VA 22314 703-838-5919 703-519-5838 (Fax) mbauer@derwentus.com |
| Steve Boyer | |
| "Idea Guy" at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. He is the creator and "father" of the IBM Patent Server, now the IBM Intellectual Property Network. | IBM Almaden Research Center 650 Harry Rd San Jose, CA 95120 408-927-1655 Boyer@Almaden.ibm.com |
| Kerry G. Stanley | |
| Application Specialist with Chemical Abstracts Service in Columbus, Ohio. He is responsible for developing training materials that support online searching on STN, with a focus on patent literature retrieval, and conducts numerous workshops and presentations. Prior to joining CAS in 1994, Kerry worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 22 years. | Application Specialist Chemical Abstracts Service 215-362-7280 kstanley@cas.org |
| Judy Hickey | |
| Patent Development Director for MicroPatent in East Haven, Connecticut. She has been with MicroPatent for nine years. | MicroPatent 250 Dodge Ave. East Haven, CT 06512 203-466-5055 203-466-5054 (fax) jhickey@micropat.com |
| David Dickens | |
| Director of Patent Services and Vice President of U.S. Operations of Questel-Orbit in their U.S. office in McLean, Virginia. He has been with Orbit since 1989 and spearheaded the merger of Orbit with Questel. | Questel-Orbit 8000 Westpark Drive McLean, VA 22102 703-556-7446 703-893-4632 ddickens@questel.orbit.com |
Lou Falasco is the Project Leader for Chemical Industries at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and Past Pesident of the Patent Documentation Society of America. He holds a BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from Manhattan College (NYC) and Cornell University, attended George Washington University Law School & the Maxwell School for Advanced Public Policy, and has an MBA from Western State Uiversity. Before becoming Project Leader, Lou was Primary Patent Examiner for Chemical Engineering at the PTO. He's been instructor at PTO's Patent Academy, and the author of patent classifications for Semiconductor Manufacturing; Inorganic Chemistry; Liquid Crystallography; Inorganic Chemistry and Electro-photography.
Martha Crockett Sneed has worked with patent and trademark information service delivery to public users for over 24 years. Currently, she serves as Manager of the Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a position she has held since January 1992. In this capacity she administers the nationwide network of 86 PTDLs, directing all support functions designed to provide a wide portfolio of products and services to assist the PTDL's efforts in disseminating patent and trademark information to their customers across the country. She worked as a staff librarian in the PTDL Program from 1985 - 1991. Prior to coming to the PTO, she worked for 11 years at the Detroit Public Library (a PTDL!), seven of them in the Technology and Science Department where she served as the PTDL Representative for the library.
Martha Crockett Sneed, Manager
Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program
Title: PTDLs: What they are, and what they are not!
presenter will debunk pervasive myths about PTDLs and reveal the secrets behind their success. Do you need one in your neighborhood? You bet, and find out why!
Chemical Abstracts Service presentation
Kerry Stanley is an Application Specialist with Chemical Abstracts Service. In this position Kerry is responsible for developing training materials supporting online searching on STN, with a focus on patent literature retrieval, and conducts numerous workshops and presentations. Kerry joined CAS in 1994.
Prior to joining CAS, Kerry worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 22 years. Initially, he conducted research towards developing new therapeutic products in the cardiovascular and immunology areas. After 11 years of laboratory research, he made the transition to information sciences. In this role Kerry has provided information retrieval services to scientists and patent attorneys, as well as managed the corporate information center and developed in-house database management systems supporting product literature and clinical records.
Kerry spent the majority of his corporate career with McNeil Pharmaceutical, Wyeth Ayerst Research and most recently with Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceutical. He is a graduate of Juniata College and received a M.S. in Organic Chemistry at Iowa State University.
Title: Making Patent Information More Accessible
The value of online patent information is inherently tied to its
retrieval. And patent record retrieval is dependent on timely
availability and search access points. Where can you retrieve US
patents the same day they are published, or Japanese chemical patent
publications within two days of publication? Can we retrieve a record
for a German 1939 patent number? How were US Provisional application
numbers incorporated into the online files? What biosequences are
described in US5952213? Are they claimed sequences? Recent file
enhancements will be described that address these and other important
questions encountered by the patent searcher.
Gérard Giroud is presently the Principal Director at The European Patent Office (The Hague) in charge of the Documentation Department. This Department is responsible for the documentation and databases as well as for the search tools available to the EPO examiners.
Gérard Giroud graduated in Chemistry in Lyon (France). At the EPO, he was first a search examiner in The Hague (Holland), and then a Substantive Examiner in Munich (Germany). He was later placed in charge of the Technical Cooperation Directorate in International Affairs (Munich). During the last 8 years, he was the Head of the EPO Agency (Vienna, Austria) in charge the EPO patent Information activities. In 1999, Gérard moved back to The Hague to take care of the EPO Documentation activities.
Gérard Giroud, Principal Director at the European Patent Office (The Hague) in charge of the Documentation Department.
Title: Developments at the European Patent OfficeAfter a short introduction on the main recent developments at the European Patent Office, the EPO Documentation Policy will be presented: extension of the documentation coverage, quality of the databases maintained, future search tools for the examiners. The importance of the projects commonly developed in the Trilateral Cooperation among the European Patent Office, the Japanese Patent Office and the US Patent and trademark Office will be underlined. The Documentation is at the heart of a strategy to allow the Patent Offices to face their growing workloads and to assure the Quality of the Patent System. The importance of the EPO documentation for external users will also be considered as well as its availability through esp@cenet (the Internet access to the EPO documentation) and commercial providers.
Rouget "Ric" Henschel is a registered U.S. patent agent at the Washington, D.C. offices of Lyon & Lyon LLP. Ric has a doctorate in organic chemistry and obtained a J.D. in January 2000. He is sitting for the Virginia bar in February. Ric's experience with patent preparation and prosecution began in 1995, when he joined the firm of Oblon, Spivak, et al, as a patent gent. Prior to that, Ric worked in the online information industry, first with the Central Abstracting & Information Service of the American Petroleum Institute, then with Dialog Information Services.
Title: U.S. Patent Law for Patent Searchers
Ric will discuss relevant issues in the recently passed American
Inventor's Protection Act of 1999, including the publication of U.S.
applications before grant and time limits for PTO actions. Ric will
also discuss topics including recent trends in theories of invalidity
in litigation, using foreign search reports as sources of relevant
documents, and document requests that are not strictly for
establishing anticipation or obviousness.
Ric would like to hear from PIUG members who have specific questions
about US patent law. He will address these questions in his talk.
You may contact Ric directly at: [RFHenschel@LYONLYON.com]
Noel J. Akers is a British and European Patent Attorney and principal of the firm Akers & Co., with offices in Houston, Texas and Cheshire, England. His practice embraces all aspects of British and European patent law, focussing in particular on prosecution and opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office. Noel has a Master of Engineering Degree in Chemical Engineering.
Title: Comparative aspects of European and US patent practice
This paper will provide an introduction to a comparison between US and European patent law and practice, concentrating on various aspects of patent practice likely to be encountered by information specialists. Subjects covered will include the rules of novelty, duty of candour, file wrapper estoppel, divisional and continuation application practice, and functional language.
Stephen Boyer (of IBM) is credited with being the "father of the IBM Patent Server" now called the Intellectual Property (IP) Network, http://www.patents.ibm.com . This effort to try to aggregate the entire intellectual property of the world into a single database and to make it available to the world on the Internet has resulted in one of the largest and most successful Internet sites on the web today.
Dr. Boyer was the primary catalyst in IBM's joint digital library initiative with Thomson Publishing. He initiated the collaboration between IBM and Thomson, which resulted in a successful venture for making more than 2,300 scientific and technical journals available via the Internet (now called The "Web of Science" TM by Thomson's ISI Corp).
Dr. Boyer has worked in numerous management positions at IBM, including overseas assignments to direct IBM's scientific and technical computing initiatives. He has evaluated IBM's investments with numerous software startups in the area of scientific and technical computing.
Dr. Boyer has several patents for his contributions in the development (and commercialization) of two pharmaceutical drugs, which are currently on the market, and two patents in the area of applying computer technology to developing tools for building scientific databases. Most recently he has led collaborations to developing Internet meta-crawling and searching technologies to promote better ways to access information. He holds a BA degree from Temple University and a Ph.D. from Tufts University.
Dr. Stephen BoyerTitle: - IBM's web-based IP-Network including new databases, visualization tools, Derwent World Patent Index on IBM, other new features and facilities.
The IBM Intellectual Property (IP) Network currently offers the public the
ability to perform global searches across multiple IP databases for US,
European and Japanese Patents, as well as PCT and European patent
applications. Additionally, users can view all of the document images for
free. We currently offer US patents, (Full -Text and images from 1971- to
present); PCT data (abstracts and full document images), European patents
and patent applications, and Japanese patent abstracts and images (from
1979). We are currently preparing to offer access to the InPoDoc database
including legal status as well as several other country collections. Later
this year, we will be including partner databases such as the Derwent DWPI
data, which will be available for a fee. We strongly felt that by
placing patent data, on the Internet we would:
Having aggregated the IP databases we are now exploring ways to improve the quality of the data as well as provide users ability to benefit from the information contained in the databases. For example, we currently publish US patent classes as they were originally issued as well as their current (reissued) classifications. We are providing new ways to "browse" patents by their classifications and we are currently working to improve how people can search for patents associated with different assignees. My talk will focus on several examples of our efforts to provide improved assignee searching as well as examples of our "newest" database mining tools, which we hope to have general availability by the time of this meeting.
Mark Hower is a senior vice president with MicroPatent where he has directed sales and account management in North America and Asia since 1998. He has 10 years experience in patent information. His prior positions include Sales Director for SmartPatents, now Aurigin Systems, Account Manager and Regional Sales Manager for Derwent Information, and was a management consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton. He has a BA from Bucknell University and an MBA from the Darden School of the University of Virginia.
Title: Case Studies in Developing Patent Analysis Solutions
Join Mark Hower as he presents insightful case studies that illustrate how MicroPatent customers have created inhouse systems for effective patent management, research and analysis that join with MicroPatent's PatentWeb. Featured case studies include solo development, as well as custom solutions engineered with the assistance of MicroPatent.
Elena Sereix is the official product manager of the Register of European Patents. She has also taken over some aspects of the marketing for epoline (the online communications between EPO and Applicants). Elena joined the European Patent Office in 1984, in Munich. As head of the information desks for the legal department, she gained a very deep knowledge on the patent granting procedure and formalities. She later moved to the Vienna office of the EPO and took over the Register, including the helpdesk, technical developments, marketing, publicity, and training seminars for patent attorneys all over Europe. In 1999 she moved to The Hague and retained responsibility for the Register. Elena has a Baccalaureat in science and is fluent in German, French and English.
Title: Register of European Patents via the Internet
The Register of European patents is now available via the Internet. This first release provides the same scope of information as the X.25 and dial-up version. The result screen presents data divided into different chapters and in the same order as the present Register: bibliographic data, search, examination, opposition and appeal.
Advantages of the internet Register:
Besides the present search criteria (application/publication numbers,
applicant, priority number and IPC) the Internet Register will
provide six additional search fields:
If the search result is more than one document, a list of 500 documents will be displayed, sorted by publication date: the most recent documents are displayed at the top of the list.
Truncation: Although truncation cannot be provided in this first version, the system allows Boolean operators in the name fields (applicant, inventor, representative, opponent)
Download: Data can be downloaded in HTML format, for local treatment.
Future developments:
Phase II - June-July 2000
The internet Register will provide the possibility of downloading
legal status results for large lists of files that have been sent
to the host in one search command.
Phase III - January 2001
A link to the public file inspection module will be implemented:
Register users will be able see the content of the file on the
screen Links to EPC Articles & Rules and IPC will be also provided.
Dialog presentation
Based in Dialog's New York office, Mr. Ellis has been with the company since 1991 and currently leads a nationwide team of specialists whose primary responsibility is working with the country's largest Law Firm and Corporate intellectual property accounts. Mr. Ellis is also responsible for initiatives designed to maintain Dialog as the world's leading provider of Intellectual Property content. He has addressed a number of professional organizations on the subject of on-line searching for intellectual property information. Mr. Ellis holds a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University.
Title: New Content & Features on Dialog, US & Worldwide
Dialog remains a premier source of intellectual property information. This presentation will focus on recent system additions such as WIPO/PCT Patents Fulltext, enhanced US & international patent delivery and the addition of specific US legal content. We will also discuss what recent changes in US patent law such as 18 month publication will mean for Dialog searchers and the forthcoming addition of tools that will allow the searcher to analyze patent and chemical information.
STN Presentation
Kerry G. Stanley, Application Specialist, Chemical Abstracts Service
Title: STN - Providing the Search Tools and Files
Some changes in patent search capabilities have been dramatic and some more subtle, but all important in maximizing retrieval. This session will focus on recent file enhancements, including nucleic acid homology searching in DGENE, US provisional applications, enhancements to the full text files USPATFULL and EUROPATFULL, and others. Also new search features and enhancements to STN on the Web will be highlighted.
Questel-Orbit presentation
David Dickens has more than 10 years of experience in the online information industry. During this time he has become an expert in the various areas of Intellectual Property Information. Recently he managed the merger of the Questel and Orbit online services, forming the new Questel-Orbit online service. In July 1999 he was named Director, Patent Business, responsible for developing Questel-Orbit's international patent business. Most recently, he was promoted to General Manager of Questel-Orbit's US operation in McLean, Virginia.
Dickens' career began with Questel-Orbit in the customer support area in 1988, and he was subsequently promoted to positions of increasing responsibility, including sales executive, manager of customer services, and product manager.
Mr. Dickens has a B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University of Florida, with a minor in marketing, economics, finance and computer science. He published an article, "The EPO ELCA Classification System", in the March 1994 edition of World Patent Information.
Title: Competing with Internet based Intellectual Property Services - The Questel-Orbit 2000 Strategy
The emergence of intellectual property services on the Internet has changed the face of patent searching. More and more users, professional and end-users alike, have come to accept, and even welcome, point-and-click, and easy-to-use professional services. In 2000, Questel-Orbit will continue to enhance our Internet products, Qweb and QPAT, to take advantage of web-based technologies.
We will also continue to become a more full-service information provider, by enhancing our already comprehensive collection of IP databases, and by offering patent delivery, flexible output delivery, including XML and Notes formats.
Substantial enhancements are also planned for QPAT, including the additional databases and more patent-specific automated features.
Derwent presentation
Donald Walter, Ph.D., Manager, Online Services, Derwent
Donald Walter has been with Derwent since 1992, specializing in supporting users of Derwent's polymer, chemical, and Markush indexing. He supports users in person by training and remotely, including on helpdesk. He also practices his craft by searching for patents in the Derwent Search Service. He learned patent searching in his 12 years at Exxon Research and Engineering Co. His Ph.D. is in chemistry from Yale.
Title: Update on WPI and Other Derwent Patent Files
In an era when raw un-enhanced patent data is becoming more and more available, Derwent's patent data is becoming more refined with more value. Last year we started rolling out a totally redesigned abstract with this new value. This year we will be updating progress in the reengineering of the Derwent abstract.
Aurigin Systems Presentation
Dr. Paul Germeraad joined Aurigin Systems in September 1998 and is focused on the development of the company's intellectual asset management products for the Licensing and R&D communities. Prior to joining Aurigin, Paul served as Vice President, Corporate Research for Avery Dennison where he directed its Corporate Research Center. Before joining Avery Dennison, Paul held a variety of R&D and management positions at Raychem Corporation and was director of James River Corporation's Flexible Packaging Technical Center. Paul is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, with a B.A. in Chemistry. In addition, Paul holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine and an LL.B degree from La Salle University in Chicago. Paul is currently Vice President of the Industrial Research Institute.
Dr. Paul B. Germeraad, CKO, Aurigin System, Inc.
Title: Conveying Information from US Patents
In addition to quick retrieval, the value of US patent information is increased when appropriately organized, analyzed, and shared. Applying these value-added elements to business planning, circumventing competition, decreasing costs, and capturing high value ground gives rise to the true value of patent information. Ways to apply patent information to accomplish these business objectives will be discussed.
Stephen Adams, Magister Ltd.
Stephen Adams is the managing director of Magister Ltd., an information and training consultancy specializing in patent documentation. He trained as a chemist at the University of Bristol, then completed a Masters degree in Information Science at City University London. He has worked in technical information for over 19 years, latterly with Zeneca Agrochemicals as their principal patent searcher. He also spent periods as the editor of "International Packaging Abstracts" at Pira International and as a searcher in the UK government's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food.
Title: Comparison of US and IPC Classification Systems
This session will use a sample of US and EP/WO documents in order to compare the classification practices at several offices. The correlation between USCl. and IPC marks will be examined, to draw some conclusions on the relative strengths and weaknesses of each system, and the need to use both systems when searching.
Dr. Paul B. Germeraad is currently Vice President of the Industrial Research Institute (IRI). Paul joined Aurigin Systems in September 1998 and is focused on the development of the company's intellectual asset management products for the Licensing and R&D communities. Prior to joining Aurigin, Paul served as Vice President, Corporate Research for Avery Dennison where he directed its Corporate Research Center. Before joining Avery Dennison, Paul held a variety of R&D and management positions at Raychem Corporation and was director of James River Corporation's Flexible Packaging Technical Center. Paul is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, with a B.A. in Chemistry. In addition, Paul holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine and an LL.B degree from La Salle University in Chicago.
Dr. Paul B. Germeraad, Vice President, Industrial Research Institute
Title: The Need for Information Science Professionals in Today's R&D Organizations
Abstract:
With the advent of new, "easy to use" search engines and software, the
trend has been to deliver more information services to everyone's
desktop. In some companies this trend has resulted in a perception that
the need for the Information Scientist has diminished, and professional
search staff has been subsequently reduced. The view today in leading
companies' senior R&D staff is that excellent decision support and change
management requires more, not less, information science support.
JAMES W. DAVIE, The Unofficial Historian of the US Patent Office
James has been a Primary Examiner in the United States Patent and Trademark Office from 1972 to the present. He is responsible for examining patent applications in Class 372, Coherent Light Generators (lasers). James has a Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering, University of Florida, 1972 Email: daviejd@home.com
Title: Insights from the Unofficial Historian of the US Patent Office
Abstract: As a patent examiner I have developed a great interest in the history of the Patent and Trademark Office. I have been actively involved in historical research since about 1980. The patent system has a very rich history, and I would like to be able to ensure that others who follow can share in my appreciation of this history. I freely share the results of my research with all interested parties. I am an amateur photographer and I have used this interest extensively in my efforts to share photographic reproductions of historically relevant images.
There are so many worthwhile projects, but so little time! For those projects that we can make a difference on we do our best, for those that are beyond our capabilities we must leave to others. My wife Diane and daughter Judy are very enthusiastic and supportive. There is no government funding or time for this project.
In 1993 I met with Commissioner Bruce Lehman and we discussed the history of the Patent and Trademark Office. At the conclusion of our discussion, Commissioner Lehman said that he would make my dream a reality by establishing a museum within the PTO. On July 25,1995 we opened The Patent and Trademark Museum in the Office of Public Affairs. There is still much work to do. There is no time for historical research.
While there has been no apparent official recognition of the need for an official historian, I have certainly benefited by serving in this capacity on an unofficial basis. Sharing information with others, whether they be students or accomplished historians is always a pleasure. In May of 1997 I was handed a stack of old documents by an official who was cleaning out her office and a closet in preparation for leaving the office. She wasn't certain what the documents were but recognized that they may be of historical interest. As she handed the documents to me she said, "I know that you will do the right thing with these." They were generally about 150 years old and interesting. However, except for one document I knew exactly what they were. The original Letters Patent with drawings signed by Samuel F. B. Morse properly belonged in the National Archives. The drawing that I initially assumed must be a very old reproduction of President Abraham Lincoln's patent drawing, which was submitted with his patent application, soon proved to be the original! The original signature corner had been torn off, perhaps a hundred years ago. The document is now safely secured at National Archives. How much more personal satisfaction could a historian possibly ever expect to have?
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