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 from 2015 - 2019 were held in Alexandria, VA, Atlanta, Georgia; Vancouver, Washington; and Lombard, Illinois. Each drew around two hundred attendees from all over the world including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States. In 2020 and 2021, the conferences had to be held as totally virtual due to the impact of COVID-19. Those conferences again had participants from all over with attendance numbering around 200 each.

Join us for a truly great conference to meet others with a professional interest in patent information within a block of the USPTO.  We will be utilizing a new enhanced Meeting App which we purchased from Socio Labs, Inc., The company and its platform was acquired by WebEx and is now known as Webex Events.  Instructions for downloading will be found on a separate Meeting App page when available along with instructions for building your personal schedule and helpful tips. The app itself also contains instructional pages within its design. The app will be used for sending push notifications during the conference in order to keep the schedule current and notify you of important announcements from PIUG while in Alexandria and conference related announcements afterwards.

This year we will have a slightly different format.  There will be some speakers but there will also be some unconference sessions.  Participants will vote on unconference sessions that they would like to participate in and then break into small group sessions.  We are trying to facilitate as much interaction as possible.

The conference begins with workshops on Sunday, April 30th and the in-person plenary sessions at the Westin Alexandria run from Monday and Tuesday, May 1st and 2nd with more workshops on Wednesday, May 3rd, but you’ll have many great opportunities to learn and connect throughout the conference.  Wednesday, May 17th will be our Annual Business Meeting which will be open to all registrants and PIUG Members.

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.

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 Chair: Martha Yates
• Members: Devin Salmon, Barbara Miller and Yateen Pargaonkar

Planning Committee

• Planning Co-Chairs:  Martha Yates & Ken Koubek
• Members:  Chris Baldwin, Ron Kaminecki, Kartar Arora, Jane Thompson
• Stu Kaback Business Impact Award Committee:  Kartar Arora (Chair), Chris Baldwin, Martha Yates
• Brian Stockdale Award Committee:  Dominic DeMarco (Chair), Ken Koubek, Andrea Davis, Shelley Pavlek
• Evaluations:  Shelley Pavlek
• Gifts:  Ken Koubek
• Meeting Book:  Diane Webb
• Sponsorship & Exhibits:  Jane Thompson (Chair) & Ken Koubek
• Webpages:  Ken Koubek
• Workshops:  Martha Yates