PIUG 2023 - ABOUT PIUG

2023 Annual Conference  About PIUG

ABOUT PATENT INFORMATION USERS GROUP (PIUG) THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PATENT INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS

The Patent Information Users Group, Inc. (PIUG) is a not-for-profit organization for individuals having a professional, scientific or technical interest in patent information. The mission of PIUG is to support, assist, improve and enhance the success of patent information professionals through leadership, education, communication, advocacy and networking. Through this international forum and discussion, we also promote and improve the retrieval, analysis and dissemination of patent information. The PIUG membership brochure offers concise information about PIUG and its many benefits for the patent information community. PIUG has over 310 active members representing 23 countries including the United States. The largest concentration of members is from the USA, Europe and India. 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 over 160 patent information professionals who do patent searching for corporations, over 40 working for vendors, over 50 patent information consultants, over 40 patent information professionals within law firms, and over 10 searchers each working for Government Offices or 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 a Public Discussion Forum on the website which is available for new posts, a global collaborative tool with over 1800 subscribers worldwide. In addition, we have presence in professional and social networking channels, such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Get to know us and meet the PIUG Officers. PIUG was founded in the United States in 1988 by an ad hoc group of patent information scientists working in the chemical, pharmaceutical, petroleum, and technology industries. (Lambert, 1993; Berks, 1993; Davis, 2009) The impetus was to develop open communication among individual patent searchers and database producers in order to supplement existing conversations generally limited to database producers and customer companies’ managers at subscriber meetings and intercompany managers conferences. It was envisioned as “a coalition of North American patent professionals whose charter is to monitor and discuss issues and developments of concern to the patent users community, and to work with database producers and vendors and the USPTO to make (or unmake) changes to benefit that [patent users] community.” (Lambert, 1991) PIUG had 17 founding members at its first meeting in 1988 and was led initially by Mike Feider (Chair), Nancy Lambert (Recording Secretary) and Pat Dorler (Treasurer) (PIUG Past Officers and Directors). See the PIUG History page for much more information about PIUG. BRIEF HISTORY