PIUG - Patent Information Users Group, Inc. upcoming events

Teach Patents to Speak Your Company’s Tech Language: Best Practices for Using Custom Fields (29 Jan 2025)

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 16:00:00 GMT

PIUG announces a FREE webinar scheduled for January 29, 2025 11 AM ET for all paid PIUG members.

Presenter: Andrew Klein, Principal Solution Consultant at Minesoft

The patent literature is an invaluable resource for understanding technology landscapes and gaining insight into competitors. However, it has also traditionally proven difficult to organize, analyze, and present that “speaks” to people who aren’t patent information professionals. One strategy for overcoming this difficulty is utilizing custom fields, a feature in many patent research platforms, to overlay a company-specific taxonomy on the standard patent data available. In this session, Andrew Klein, Principal Solution Consultant at Minesoft, will present best practices for using custom fields to make several common patent intelligence workflows easier:

· Identifying prior art for patentability

· Filtering large datasets

· Monitoring/alerting on technologies of interest

· Creating visualizations for analyzing patent data by technology

Given the cost of the webinar and the potential savings to your patent searching practice, how can you not attend this remarkable event?

The session will be recorded and available on demand at PIUG Education and Training

Please share this announcement with your colleagues and post to your professional association calendars.

Essential Patent Search Techniques (19 Feb 2025)

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

Instructor: John Zabilski

Learn essential information and techniques to effectively search for patent information.

Understanding database coverage, content and structure
Balancing precision versus recall
Comparing search types including bibliographic, keyword, classification, citation, full-text and indexed content
Building comprehensive search statements using search operators and command language techniques including nesting, truncation, wildcards and stemming
Contrasting search features across free and commercial resources
Considering necessary steps for different search types: Patentability, Freedom to Operate and Validity
Practical search example applying these techniques

NOTE: Before registering for any of the individual webinars , please consider registering for the complete series to save money. Register for the Series HERE!

PIUG Course - Essential Techniques for Finding Freedom-to-Operate (FTO) (04 May 2025)

Sun, 04 May 2025 19:00:00 GMT

INSTRUCTOR: John Zabilski Chair, PIUG Education & Training Committee

Registered US Patent Agent (No. 59,626)

Qualified Patent Information Professional (No. 20190010100257)

It’s known by several names including Freedom to Practice or a clearance search. Without Freedom to Operate you may not be able to make, use or sell your invention. An FTO search looks for in-force patents in a geographic area of interest to avoid potential infringement. Discover what is required to complete a comprehensive search and identify what is still legally protected to better inform business decisions. This course provides understanding of the fundamental concepts of FTO, identifies essential resources for finding FTO and includes search examples demonstrating suggested approaches for FTO searches. Also learn how to utilize freely accessible resources to determine what is legally in-force such as INPADOC and national patent office registers as well as vendor-based alternatives. Whether you are new to performing FTO searches or more experienced, this course provides focused techniques that save your time and make you more effective in achieving accurate results.

This course is offered as a virtual course for those not attending the PIUG 2025 Annual Conference in-person or participating as a virtual registrant of the conference.

Available live in-person/virtually online or access on-demand afterwards!

Advanced Patent Search Strategies: What to Use When All Else Fails (17 Nov 2026)

Tue, 17 Nov 2026 15:00:00 GMT

Advanced Patent Search Strategies

What to Use When All Else Fails

Learn advanced search strategies to try when you’ve used the typical search methods and you want to make sure you did not miss something important. These strategies are also useful to help determine when a search is as near complete as possible, indicating that the searching may soon end. While the typical search methods including keywords, classification codes, citations and advanced systems will be briefly reviewed, the main focus will cover what to do after using these initial strategies.

View an introductory VIDEO from course instructor Ron Kaminecki

This two-part series covers multiple techniques including:

The Building Block Approach: categorizing concepts to modify a strategy
Successive Fractions: paring a search down by concepts
Recombination of Elements: narrowing piecemeal results to avoid duplicates
Terms of Art: identifying the most important terminology
Linking: extending the search to other database sources
Pearl Growing: expanding results starting with only a single result
Cherry Picking: using a few documents to locate more information
High-Precision Networking: Using minimal terms in a specially focused format to open up a search
Analogous Arts: using alternative sources to locate the information

PIUG India Freedom-to-Operate Webinar (18 Nov 2026)

Wed, 18 Nov 2026 14:00:00 GMT

PIUG MONTHLY Calendar - November 18th, 2026

FREE PIUG India Training Seminar

Live Event Open to the Public

Wednesday November 18^th at 7:30 IST (9 AM EST)

Strategic Two-Pronged Approach to

Freedom to Operate (FTO) for Complex Formulations

Harita S Achanta - Director, Marketing & HR

SciTech Patent Art Services Pvt. Ltd.

Conducting Freedom to Operate (FTO) analyses is a critical milestone of a product development cycle. Given the sensitive nature of such analyses where the full product formulation needs to be reviewed and searched, companies are often sensitive to outsourcing such search needs. However, when there are frequent new product launches or when internal resources are limited, the need to outsource such searches is high. IP or R&D professionals, in such situations, face a strategic dilemma of how to conduct exhaustive patent clearances externally without compromising sensitive technical know-how or overextending budgets.

This presentation outlines a well demonstrated, two-pronged methodology for conducting FTO searches on client-defined formulations, while effectively balancing confidentiality and cost, in order to overcome enforcement barriers.

We contrast two distinct strategies for FTO:

1. The Complete Formulation Search:

This comprehensive approach, used when confidentiality constraints are minimal, yields a highly refined set of probable blocking patents suitable for direct decision-making.

2. The Isolated Ingredient Search:

When confidentiality is critical, the formulation is deconstructed and searched by individual ingredients, while the final synthesis of results is performed by the client.

Attendees will gain insights into the specific query structures, and outcomes associated with each approach. By the end of the session, participants will be equipped to select the most appropriate approach based on their budgetary constraints, and the sensitivity of their chemical or biological innovations.

BIOGRAPHY

Harita S. Achanta is the Director of Marketing at SciTech Patent Art, a global intellectual property research and analytics firm. In this role, she leads the firm’s marketing initiatives, helping to position and communicate the firm’s patent analytics and IP services to a diverse international client base.

She holds a background in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, is a U.S. Registered Patent Agent and has an MBA. Harita has collaborated with multinational clients across industries and brings a practical, client-focused perspective on how organizations can leverage patent intelligence to stay ahead of emerging innovation trends.

PIUG Members Can Access the Recording After the Meeting

Receive a one-time introductory offer by becoming a PIUG member by December 18th at Emerging Country Discount

More information on a PIUG membership

Advanced Patent Search Strategies: What to Use When All Else Fails (19 Nov 2026)

Thu, 19 Nov 2026 15:00:00 GMT

Advanced Patent Search Strategies

What to Use When All Else Fails

View an introductory VIDEO from course instructor Ron Kaminecki

This two-part series covers multiple techniques including:

The Building Block Approach: categorizing concepts to modify a strategy
Successive Fractions: paring a search down by concepts
Recombination of Elements: narrowing piecemeal results to avoid duplicates
Terms of Art: identifying the most important terminology
Linking: extending the search to other database sources
Pearl Growing: expanding results starting with only a single result
Cherry Picking: using a few documents to locate more information
High-Precision Networking: Using minimal terms in a specially focused format to open up a search
Analogous Arts: using alternative sources to locate the information