PIUG - Membership Benefits

Member Registration and Renewal

PIUG has approximately 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 800 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.

History

The Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) was established in 1988. The objective of the group was to create a forum to discuss issues and concerns relevant to the patent searcher community. PIUG promotes the importance of intellectual property, especially patent publications, and most specifically, the computerized patent databases. Since 1988, PIUG has worked with intellectual property database producers and vendors to maintain and to improve the quality of their product from the customer, or user, perspective.

Membership Fee

Membership is based on the calendar year. Effective January 1, 2009, the one-year membership fee is $50 (US) and includes the member benefits listed below. A discounted annual membership fee of $25 (US) is available for full-time students, full-time retirees and those unemployed at the time of renewal.

Member Benefits

• PIUG Membership Directory (Members-only site)
• Reduced registration fees for PIUG conferences: the PIUG Annual Conference (May), PIUG Boston Biotech meeting (February) and PIUG Northeast Conference (October)
• Access to Annual, Biotech, and Northeast Conference Proceedings (Members-only wiki access)
• PIUG Newsletter and Newsletter Archive Access (the cover page of the most recent issue is available to all)
• PIUG Salary Survey and Access to Previous Surveys (Members-only wiki access)
• Enhanced functionality on PIUG wiki
• Ongoing professional training through conference venues and sponsors.
• Access to the PIUG Professional LinkedIn group

To join or renew membership to PIUG, click the appropriate link to the secure pages provided by 123Signup:

Member Enrollment - New Member

Member Renewal - Existing Member

To check your existing membership profile and make any changes please click below:

Member Profile

Questions about Membership: Contact PIUG Membership and Dues Committee Chairperson Malcolm Hallam, malcolm.hallam @ chch.oxon.org .

© 2009 The Patent Information Users Group, Inc. – PIUG Website Committee
Webmaster: Tom Wolff (piugwebmaster @ gmail.com): – Updated: 2 May 2009