Overview

The conference will feature world-renowned experts on patent information for technology research and planning, for legal organizations, for patent offices and for overall corporate IP management (technology licensing and related activities). The conference will include many opportunities for discussion and part of the activities on the Tuesday of the conference will be dedicated to visiting the exhibit hall to learn about the new patent information tools and developments within the industry. Many professionally enriching workshops will also be held in conjunction with this conference (before, during and after the technical sessions).

Attendees typically have a professional, scientific, economic or technical interest in patents and represent a multitude of organizations including corporations, universities, government agencies, non-government organizations and non-profit organizations. Previous conferences over the last three years that were held in Alexandria, Virginia; Garden Grove, California and Lombard, Illinois drew several hundred attendees from all over the world including Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States. We expect over 250 attendees in 2016.

PLEASE BE ADVISED that attendees and speakers who are not members of PIUG will not have post-conference access to the conference presentations posted on the PIUG wiki, which is a PIUG member benefit. To enable post-conference access to PIUG conference presentations, and to also save significantly on PIUG conference registration fees, BECOME A MEMBER of PIUG by going to the PIUG Membership page.

Join us for a truly great conference to meet others with a professional interest in patent information in the Pacific Northwest.

Registration

Early Bird Registration opened on February 12, 2016.

Keynote Speaker

Join us for our distinguished keynote speaker, Marc Adler, Intellectual Property Strategist and Consultant at Marc Adler LLC and former Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Rohm and Haas Company, who will speak on "The Criticality of Searching for Quality Patents."

Marc Adler is an Intellectual Property Strategist and Consultant. He is a Chemical Engineer and a Registered Patent Attorney with over 30 years of experience. He acts as an IP Strategy Advisor for invention and patent portfolio development, IP transactions, and patent analytics projects. In recent years, he has been consulting to multi-national, mid-sized and startup technology based companies in a number of different industries. He served as the Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Rohm and Haas Company for over 15 years. In that role, he was responsible for global patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret matters. He successfully led the innovation and technology protection operations for the Company, where he instituted a unique intellectual property strategy to create sustainable competitive advantages with measurable financial returns. He has been an innovator in the use of patent analytics to identify promising next generation advances for effective R&D and product development. He has been active in intellectual property law and management issues. He was a member of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Public Advisory Committee. He has served as the President of the Association of Patent Counsel and the Intellectual Property Owners Association. Mr. Adler received his J.D. from St. John's University and holds a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida and a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering from City University of New York.

Conference Program at a Glance

Sponsorship Opportunities

PIUG welcomes new and returning sponsors to join us for networking and showcasing your products or services to our international audience of patent information users. Please see the summary of Sponsorship Opportunities.

PIUG gratefully acknowledges the generous support of all our sponsors and exhibitors.

Program Committee

Program Co-Chairs – Heather Simmons and Ron Kaminecki
Members – Stephen Adams, Kartar Arora, Andrea Davis, Dominic DeMarco, and Zhifu Shu

Planning Committee

Planning Co-Chairs – Elliott Linder and Ken Koubek
Stu Kaback Business Impact Award Committee – Susanne Hantos, Stephen Adams, Martha Yates, Sandra Unger, and Elliott Linder
Brian Stockdale Award Committee – Edlyn Simmons (Chair), Stephen Adams, Ken Koubek, and Tony Trippe
Evaluations – Ken Koubek
Gifts – Ken Koubek
Hospitality - Matt McBride
First Time Attendee Welcome & Orientation – Suzanne Robins (Chair) and the Member Relations Committee
Meeting Book – Diane Webb
Photography – Jim Brown
Registration Liaison – Ken Koubek
Signage – Zhifu Shu
Social Media – Jeannette Fiala
Sponsorship & Exhibits – Jane Thompson (Chair), Denise Fobare-Deponio, Cynthia Barcelon-Yang, Shelley Pavlek, and Kim Miller
Travel – George Pike, Matt McBride
Webpages – Tom Wolff (Webmaster)
Workshops – Martha Yates