#PIUG23

Sunday, April 30 - Wednesday, May 3, 2023

We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the PIUG 2023 Annual Conference to be held April 30 - May 3, 2023 at the Westin Alexandria in Alexandria VA.  The theme for the 35th Annual Conference is:

The Unconference—Choose Your Own Patent Adventure

Why should you attend a conference in person?  With everything online these days, what can make you pack your bags and get on a plane?  PIUG presents the patent unconference.  We will have a mix of traditional talks, talks from vendors, time to interact with our vendors, traditional social time and unconference sessions.  Traditional talks will be recorded and available for virtual attendees.  Unconference sessions will only be live.

Unconference sessions will be 20-30 minute sessions where small groups will talk about topics that are voted on the day before.  Thus only the most relevant topics will be discussed.

We are interested in papers from ALL sectors of the patent information community (chemistry, electrical, mechanical, software, pharmaceutical & biotechnology), and from ALL areas of the patent professional community (attorneys, agents, examiners, searchers (corporate and independent consultants) & tech transfer offices) on patent searching and analysis topics with an emphasis on practical applications and use cases. 

We would also like suggestions for any unconference topics that you would like to discuss.  Please send your suggestions to Martha Yates (martha.yates@bayer.com).  Potential topics could include vendor resources, websites, applications, soft skills such as client management, or anything else that relates to patent searching. If you would be interested in moderating an unconference session please contact Martha.  These sessions can be totally unstructured or have some structure with the goal being discussion- this is not meant to be a big time commitment or a talk.  Rather, the moderator will introduce the topic through a 1-2 slide introduction or using just a few sentences, and then ensure that the discussion keeps moving. Ideas will be voted on at the meeting to determine what will happen.

General Guidelines for submitting proposal/topic/ideas: 

·         Send your paper title, abstract (max. 200 words), speaker names, affiliation, brief biography and full contact information to Martha Yates (martha.yates@bayer.com). Note: presentations are typically 20-30 min., followed by 5 min. questions and answers.

·         Do not include confidential or business-sensitive information in your abstract.

·         If you would like to recommend a speaker or a topic for a presentation or an unconference session, please contact the PIUG 2023 Annual Conference organizers, listed below, with your comments and suggestions.

·         Further news about the program and updates regarding the conference will be posted on the PIUG web site at www.piug.org and PIUG Community.

Deadline is January 31, 2023. 

Please share this notice within your greater patent information community to enhance our outreach efforts.  Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to seeing you at the PIUG 2023 Annual Conference!

PIUG 2023 Annual Conference Program Committee

Martha Yates, Committee Chair 

Call for Papers

Now in its 17th year, the PIUG Biotechnology Conference focuses on best practices for patent information professionals who specialize in biotechnology search and analysis. Within a changing scientific and business environment, patent searchers continue to provide value to their organization and clients by maintaining contemporary knowledge of resources, technologies and industry trends.

The program committee is accepting submissions until November 1, 2022, on the following suggested topics associated with the theme, The Biotech Universe: Food, Animals, Devices, and Therapeutics.  The theme is meant to inspire but not to limit topic selection - all topics related to biotechnology patent information research listed below will be considered.

• Human and animal health vaccines along with technology development
• Digital health and digital therapeutics including wearable devices, biosensors, medical devices, companion applications and diagnostics
• Policies impacting biotechnology
• Agriculture, animal, and food science
• Cell and gene therapy including sequences, vector, delivery mechanisms, manufacturing/production, formulations and targeted indications
• Presentations on scientific resources that will help biotech patent searchers develop and maintain their scientific knowledge and searching skills. Topic themes include technology platforms, biosimilars, including exclusivity information and the BPCIA “patent dance”, multi-valent antibodies as well as modifications, gene editing (CRISPR), CDR searching, combination therapeutics, and advanced sequence  searching
• The use of computer assisted searching such as text mining, machine learning or artificial intelligence in biotechnology patent searching
• How changes in the law or regulatory procedures impact biotechnology patent searching
• The use of patent information as a pre-competitive intelligence tool, intellectual property valuation/monetization, in licensing/out licensing opportunity identification, and patent landscaping/trend analysis
• Practical suggestions to illustrate these themes are as follows:
  • Best practices in constructing patent search strategies, reporting formats, and use of new tools for the organization/management of patent alerts/watches
  • Showcase methods for effective client engagement, user experience, attorney outreach and time management
  • The incorporation use cases in the academic, corporate and other sectors
  • Examples of how a work product supports or is a component of business decisions
• Review the use of patent information as a competitive intelligence resource
• Approaches to fostering continuous improvement, i.e., use of analytical &/or visualization applications, implementing quality control guidelines, team collaboration and knowledge sharing practices.

In addition, as always, the committee is interested in presentations about a specific search scenario with the strategy described, databases used, results identified, or other tips and tricks.

Interested speakers should submit the following to https://form.jotform.com/biotechconf/piug23bioproposals and by November 1, 2022:

1. Proposed speaker name
2. Brief biography
3. Full contact information
4. Presentation title
5. Abstract (100 – 200 words)

The organizers 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 maybe published on the PIUG web site and related media, 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 recommend 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 PIUG 2023 Biotechnology Conference organizers, listed below with your views.

Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to seeing you at the PIUG 2023 Biotechnology Conference! 

Conference Committees