PIUG 2014 Annual Conference
An International Conference for Patent Information Professionals

Patent Knowledge & IP Strategy:
Riding the Waves of Change to Achieve Business Success

Conference Program

The PIUG is pleased to announce the program for the 2014 PIUG Annual conference. When planning your trip to the conference, please keep the following events in mind so that you do not miss out on a valuable opportunity.

Conference Program at a Glance

In addition, your conference Registration includes conference breakfasts, lunches, and refreshments during meeting breaks for Monday, April 28 through Wednesday April 30.

Early-bird registration closed March 7, 2014. The online registration rate begins April 12, 2014 and continues through the Plenary Session for on-site registration. See full details on the Registration page.

Technical Session - Monday to Wednesday

The PIUG would like to inform all conference attendees that the use of photographic or recording devices of any kind to create recordings of the conference proceedings including the technical program and workshops is strictly prohibited. This includes recordings by the audience for personal use.

Please note that the speakers, dates and times listed in the program below may change if circumstances arise. Accordingly, please monitor this web page for updated information.

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Conference Abstracts and Biographies

The Past Present & Future of Computer Curation of Patents & Scientific Literature (Keynote Presentation)

Abstract

Initially, patents and related literature were indexed with text search engines to enable full-text searching of content. These traditional search systems find relevant documents if fed explicit queries, but they do not provide the added value of generating new scientific hypotheses. Technologies have since evolved to selectively identify and cross-correlate specific entities in both text and images of documents. For example, chemicals, genes, and diseases are identified and transformed into appropriate machine-readable formats that are then integrated with similarly processed data from a wide range of sources (databases, web services, journals, clinical trials, etc ). The result is a computer system that searches on molecular structures, gene sequences, and entity attributes to reveal relationships within the contents to be exploited in new ways. These data are then analyzed across multiple sources to build networks that reveal and predict relationships not apparent from the text of historical documents. One goal in the computer curation of text and structures is development of mining technologies to accelerate the discovery of new relationships and properties that are not obvious from directly reading the documents. In sum, the discovery value that results from computer curation across platforms far exceeds the sum of the parts.

Dr. Stephen Boyer
Research Solutions for the ChemPharma Industry, IBM Almaden Research Center

Biography

In the interdisciplinary area of chemistry and computer science Steve pioneered the use of computers to automatically curate scientific literature and patents, thereby expanding the utility of published information in biomedicine, the physical sciences and intellectual property. More recently, he initiated a collaboration of pharmaceutical industry leaders and international governmental organizations to enhance access and curation of scientific information. This formed not only the basis of a new commercial offering for IBM but also the donation of ~ 2 million molecular structures to NIH as a PubChem deposition. His background combines ten years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry (Ciba-Geigy / Novartis) with 25 years at IBM. He has authored numerous publications and patents in the areas of new drug syntheses and text- and image-analytics.

Stephen was recently announced as the 2014 IPI-Award winner. His B.A. is from Temple University in Philadelphia and Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Tufts University.

Applying Information Analysis to Business Challenges at 3M

Abstract

Over the last fifteen years, 3M Information Research & Solutions has introduced a variety of information analysis techniques to the technical community in order to help make key decisions on mergers and acquisitions, technology investment, and competitive intelligence. This presentation will describe the increasing role of IP analysis in the innovation process and provide best practices for working with subject matter experts. Working with Intellixir, a suite of analysis and text visualization tools, we can describe success stories in how scientists use information to develop their new products and monitor the competition.

John Arenivar
3M

Biography

John began his professional career as a bench and scale-up chemist in the specialty chemicals field before transitioning to information research in 1995. After working with Teltech (since absorbed into ORC Guideline), John joined 3M in 1997 as a patent information analyst. Currently, John supports several divisions and labs at 3M with technical and patent information searches, and is the department evangelist for patent analysis and visualization.

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Measuring and Modeling Innovation and Collaboration Networks at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Abstract

The Graphene Project involved analyzing Chalmers University (CH) related graphene patenting activity in light of the so-called Swedish teacher's exemption which permits university researchers to pursue patents without informing the university at which they work.

The major hurdle to overcome was how to locate CH graphene researchers, and then use the information found to search the patent data base(s) as to determine which graphene patents had at least one Chalmers researcher as an inventor.

Later for instance forward citation analysis can be performed to determine which inventors have the most cited inventions within the patent record to help predict the potential commercial or license revenue potential each inventor patents.

The present findings are based on the empirical data obtained from the searches conducted and analyzed for the following aspects: First it reflects on the patterns of CH-patents over time. Second it discusses the findings from the dimension of inventors and sets the background. Third, it presents the findings related to assignees, and proposes tentative insights where university patents are utilized.

Thomas Houze
Georgetown University - Office of Technology Commercialization

Biography

Education and Post-Graduate Training

Dr. Thomas Houze in a native of New York City, New York whom has lived, studied, and worked in Sweden and most recently Wales, UK since he received him Bachelors of Science degree from Stony Brook, New York. Dr. Houze received his Ph.D., in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden in 1997 in cancer research and molecular immunotherapy; Dr. Houze was awarded an IRTA postdoctoral fellowship in 1997 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and trained in Technology Transfer, he subsequently worked as a Patent Examiner at the USPTO. In Sweden Dr. Houze worked as an Independent Patent Consultant; a Consultant at the Holding Company of Gothenburg University; as an Innovation Advisor/IP Analyst for the Innovation Office of Chalmers University of Technology; been involved as an entrepreneur with many university based start-up companies; and earned the Master of Science degree in Business Development from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden as well as the prestigious Prince of Wales Innovation Scholarship (POWIS) in Wales, UK in 2010. Dr. Houze has written over 21 UK patent applications, and 2 PCTs while a POWIS scholar and has worked with the Noble Prize Laureate Prof. Sir Martin Evans.

Research Interest

Dr. Houze's research interest centers on the analysis of performance metrics both in academia and the commercial sector with the aim of performing analysis in evaluating groups of scientific actors (countries, regions, universities, departments, and researchers) and the impact of their activity on the basis of bibliographic and even patent database analysis. This knowledge can reveal hidden functional relationships between innovators and scientist, and the corresponding degree of influence these relationships foretell over others in various fields of interest.

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A Way Out of the Crystal Maze

Abstract

2014 is the International year of Crystallography. Crystalline materials play a fundamental role in numerous technical fields, ranging from optics and electronics to chemistry and pharmacy. Identifying patent documents related to specific crystalline materials can be challenging owing to the various ways patent applicants may have characterised their composition and structure.

The European Patent Office offers a large variety of services and products that help to search and analyse patent information. The speech will give an overview of how these services and products can help to cope with challenges and to overcome problems in patent searches and analyses related to crystalline materials.

Christian Soltmann
European Patent Office (EPO)

Biography

Christian Soltmann is coordinator for the business use of patent information at the European Patent Office in Vienna.

He holds a PhD in materials science and a MAS in Intellectual Property. After having worked several years as a materials scientist in the field of metals, ceramics and electron microscopy, he specialised in intellectual property and became a patent examiner and patent searcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, with an emphasis on data mining and patent statistics for high-tech sectors and emerging technologies. In addition, he has lectured at the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne on intellectual property and IP management.

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Making Sense of a Small World

Abstract

The Innovation Co-Lab -- a collaboration of Georgia Tech, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), and the University of Manchester -- is exploring ways to enhance topical intelligence from patent compilations. Our working case is Nano-Enabled Drug Delivery (NEDD) - an emerging technology that encompasses several subsystems. To analyze content within this complex area, we are pursuing three approaches. In the first, we are exploring ways to combine topical information from different sources: Patent classes (especially, Manual Codes), Title and abstract-use noun phrases, and imported keyword sets [derived from primary Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms from MEDLINE search]. We compare what can be gleaned from these three fields separately, and in combination, to improve topical characterization. In the second approach we use a Co-Lab developed algorithm called "Cluster Suite" to further refine text content extracted from the records. This suite of algorithms consolidates noun phrase and title terms to provide more refined topical information. The third approach uses semantic techniques to improve our understanding of how different technologies work within NEDD. R&D activity in major sub-topics is tracked over time. These three approaches provide intelligence on topical emergence and help identify future technology trends and opportunities.

Alan L. Porter
Georgia Tech Search Technology, Inc.

Biography

Alan Porter is Professor Emeritus of Industrial & Systems Engineering, and of Public Policy, at Georgia Tech, where he remains Co-director of the Technology Policy and Assessment Center. He is author of some 220 articles and books, including Tech Mining (Wiley, 2005). Current research emphasizes R&D profiling & assessment, competitive technical intelligence, and forecasting of emerging technology innovation pathways. He also directs R&D for Search Technology, Inc., Norcross, GA, USA.

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Pharma/biotech v. Technology Patent Search and Analysis: Similarities and Differences

Abstract

A veteran of pharma/biotech patent searching enters the technology sector and is pleasantly surprised to find a lot of common patent searching tools and techniques in use - but the similarities end there, as the sheer volume of patents, technology refresh and need for effective tools in technology is no match for pharma.

The long lag time in clinical developments in pharma, and the small, incremental changes in drugs and antibodies present different searching challenges.

It is not uncommon for a company in the technology sector to generate a quarter million patents in twenty years. The speaker will present a case study of mining a large patent portfolio using Thomson Data Analyzer, and the typical deliverables requested by his clients. Frequent use of Excel pivot tables and heat maps are the norm, rather than the exception. Patent data is often merged with other BI data (e.g. market research, SEC, litigation, licensing, M&A, VC funding, non-patent literature etc.) to provide the client a more complete picture of the question at hand.

Dilip Pandya
Qualcomm

Biography

Dilip Pandya is a patent researcher with over twenty years of experience. In his current role, Dilip is a Manager, Research & Analysis with Qualcomm Library and Information services. In this role, he is responsible for patent search and analysis in support of key strategy groups at Qualcomm. Dilip often incorporates BI/CI information with patent information to create high value reports for his clients.

Initially as bench researcher in immunodiagnostics, Dilip transitioned into a new role as a Patent Examiner, complex biotechnology, at the USPTO. Dilip progressed to the Chief of USPTO Information Branch (Chem/Biotech. Division) where he managed a staff of fourteen. Dilip's team was responsible for bulk of the sequence searching coming out of the human genome project.

Dilip has also worked in similar roles at Dow Chemical, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and AstraZeneca. Dilip joined Qualcomm in October 2011.

Dilip received a B.Sc. Honours Degree in Biochemistry from The University of Salford, UK.

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Multivariate Patent Similarity Detection

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for more accurate detection of similaritiesamong patents, leading to better prior art search, market gap analysis, infringement detection, discovery, and litigation support. Ample patent data is readily available, but detection of similaritiesamong patents is difficult, generally resulting in high false-positive and false-negative errors. We describe a multivariate approach for detection of similaritiesamong patents. In particular, the application of text mining, link analysis, and clustering to patent data (text, classification, citations and dates) provides a robust method for higher search accuracy fault-tolerance than keyword searching. Further, visualization of the multiple variables can further assist the patent searchers.

Kas Kasravi
Hewlett-Packard

Biography

Kas Kasravi is an HP Fellow at Hewlett-Packard, with 30 years of industry experience. His areas of interest are analytics, artificial intelligence, patent law, and invention methodologies; using which, he has developed innovative solutions for clients in diverse industries, including engineering, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, financial, securities, procurement, insurance, and defense. Kas is an inventor, has been awarded thirteen worldwide patents, and has over twenty patents pending. He has published over two dozen technical articles, and one of his projects received an award from the Smithsonian Institute. Kas has BS and MS degrees in engineering, and a law degree with emphasis on intellectual property. He is a Certified Manufacturing Engineer and has ITIL, TOGAF, and Six Sigma certifications. He has taught engineering at several universities in Michigan.

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Mining the Treasures for Competence: Human Resource & Technology Using Patent Information

Abstract

This topic aims to introduce some new ways to make better use of patent information.

Firstly, from human resource perspective, a novel method is introduced, which can be used to discover core competency human resources that an interested or targeted entity/corporation has and how they contribute to the technology development for that company. By using a reciprocating/circular co-inventor tracking method, an inventor tree can be achieved where important inventors and technology developing routes in the target company can be visualized. With such information, one can explore further, either from an HR view or technology R&D view. A real-world case study on Benz-Mercedes, a famous automobile manufacturer, will be introduced as an example.

Then, from a technology perspective, a novel way to tracing and uncovering a targeted entity's technology development route mainly based on Expanded Family Based Citation (EFBC, a non-traditional definition of patent citation) will be introduced. This method is especially useful for some patent systems where patent citation data is not well documented. A Faurecia empirical study is used to demonstrate how this method works, where one can easily find out how Faurecia has managed its patent strategy in one of its sub-field - the automobile seat rail field - in China by visualizing its China patents.

With the two methodologies introduced, key information such as technology development strategies and key human resources can be identified and better decisions can be made based thereupon. However, a further aim of this talk is to call out innovative demands and use of patent information from patent users, more customer-oriented tools from service providers and high quality (raw) patent data from patent agencies all over the world. Only with collective efforts can patent information be better utilized.

Binqiang Liu
University of New Hampshire

Biography

Binqiang Liu is current LLM in IP at UNH Law, at Concord, New Hampshire. Before coming to US, Mr. Liu was a patent examiner at SIPO (State Intellectual Property Office of China) for more than 7 years. He has both Bachelor and Master Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a post-graduate Master degree in China Civil and Commercial Law. He is experienced in patent examination, patent analysis and patent policy study.

Mr. Liu speaks at IP forums and conferences held by various institutions, including Tsinghua University School of Law, Peking University School of Law and China Patent Agent Committee and Industrial Committees. He has also spoken on China Utility Model Patent at the PIUG 2013 Northeast Conference and on SIPO Patent Databases and China Medicine Patent Search at the PIUG 2014 Biotech Conference.

Mr. Liu is a regular writer and has published more than 20 papers on patent related topics published at various journals both in China and in US. He is member of LES (Licensing Executives Society), PIAC (Patent Information Annual Conference) China, PIUG and other associations (ABA, FBA and INTA etc.).

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Hooray for Hollywood - a Brief Encounter with Intellectual Property Rights in the Creative Industries.

Abstract

Many patent information specialists deal with "hard" sciences and technology, whereas historically the "soft" creative industries have been seen as having little interest in, or involvement with, the world of patenting. This presentation will add some insight into how these sectors of industry have developed, particularly since the State Street decision opened the floodgates on software-based inventions and methods of doing business. In addition, certain aspects of trademark and design protection have become extremely competitive (see for example the Apple -v- Samsung litigation surrounding US Design Patents). Patent information specialists may have something to learn about their everyday work by understanding the role of these allied forms of IP right and their business impact.

Stephen Adams
Magister Ltd.

Biography

Stephen Adams is the managing director of Magister Ltd, a patent information consulting company. He has served as Director-at-Large to the PIUG Board 2002-2006, and also held various posts in the UK Patent and Trade Mark Group. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Elsevier journal 'World Patent Information', and frequently publishes in this journal and other professional periodicals. He is the author of the last 2 editions of "Information Sources in Patents", currently published by de Gruyter Verlag in Germany.

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Automated Patent Obviousness Detection

Abstract

We describe a semantic analysis approach for automated detection of obviousness in patents and prior art. Detection of patent obviousness is generally a hard problem; since it involves finding a set of relevant documents that when combined together subsume the claims of a target patent. Generally, our solution addresses the challenge of combinatorial document matching based on partial semantic similarities. Specifically, we propose a text mining solution that extracts and analyzes inventive elements, and discovers a set of prior art that only in combination match a target document such as patent, a patent application, or an invention disclosure. Our approach, based on combinatorial document matching, yields good results when applied to semantic analysis of the first independent claim of patents, therefore promises to save time and resources in patent prosecution, discovery, and litigation.

Kas Kasravi
Hewlett-Packard

Biography

Kas Kasravi is an HP Fellow at Hewlett-Packard, with 30 years of industry experience. His areas of interest are analytics, artificial intelligence, patent law, and invention methodologies; using which, he has developed innovative solutions for clients in diverse industries, including engineering, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, financial, securities, procurement, insurance, and defense. Kas is an inventor, has been awarded thirteen worldwide patents, and has over twenty patents pending. He has published over two dozen technical articles, and one of his projects received an award from the Smithsonian Institute. Kas has BS and MS degrees in engineering , and a law degree with emphasis on intellectual property. He is a Certified Manufacturing Engineer and has ITIL, TOGAF, and Six Sigma certifications. He has taught engineering at several universities in Michigan.

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Analytics Panel
Patent Counsels' Views on Patent Analytics/Citation Analysis

Abstract

How do patent attorneys use patent analytics and patent citation based analysis to address business needs? A panel of senior patent counsel from leading multi-national corporations or law firms will be discussing their views. The moderated panel will cover the benefits, traps and place of analytics in IP decisions. Questions to the panel can be submitted prior to the conference to adavis@nuvasive.com to be taken up by the moderator or posed directly to the panel during the event.

 Moderator: John Arenivar, 3M

John began his professional career as a bench and scale-up chemist in the specialty chemicals field before transitioning to information research in 1995. After working with Teltech (since absorbed into ORC Guideline), John joined 3M in 1997 as a patent information analyst. Currently, John supports several divisions and labs at 3M with technical and patent information searches, and is the department evangelist for patent analysis and visualization.

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Empirical Instruction Obtained from Dojo-style School Program for Patent Information Map Analysis (PIMA) During 8 Years in Japan and Current Japanese Situation

Abstract

An effective Pseudo-Experience of Patent Information Map Analysis(PIMA) in Japan is explained. This program has been improved in seven years. 95% of participants are statistically satisfied with activities and have almost attained their initial purposes. They spent totally 190 hours to practice for PIMA under the same theme on online DB along the best processes accomplished in the past. This is really a Pseudo-Experience obtainable from experienced advisers. Each group challenges to verify his IP strategy (hypothesis) through flag-Patent Information and makes a final presentation publically. 

Tsutomu (Ben) Kiriyama
Hayabusa International Patent Office

Biography

Tsutomu Kiriyama is a guest researcher of Japio. He is also Chair of PDG of INFOSTA (Information Science Technology Association in Japan). He is also a schoolmaster of PIMA school of Raytec.Co. He is also an adviser of HAYABUSA(falcon) INTERNATIONAL PATENT OFFICE.

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Machine Learning Approaches for Quantifying and Predicting Patent Quality

Abstract

The number of patents filed each year has increased dramatically in recent years, raising concerns that patents of questionable validity are restricting the issuance of truly innovative patents. For this reason, there is a strong demand to develop an objective model to quantify patent quality and characterize the attributes that lead to higher-quality patents. In this paper, we develop a latent graphical model to infer patent quality from related measurements. In addition, we extract advanced lexical features via natural language processing techniques to capture the quality measures such as clarity of claims, originality, and importance of cited prior art. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by validating its predictions with previous court decisions of litigated patents.

Yan Liu
Computer Science Dept, University of Southern California

Biography

Yan Liu is an assistant professor in Computer Science Department at University of Southern California from 2010. Before that, she was a Research Staff Member at IBM Research from 2006. She received her M.Sc and Ph.D. degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004 and 2007. Her research interest includes developing scalable machine learning and data mining algorithms with applications to social media analysis, computational biology, climate modeling and business analytics. She has received several awards, including NSF CAREER Award, Okawa Foundation Award, ACM Dissertation Award Honorable Mention, Best Paper Award in SIAM Data Mining Conference, Yahoo! Faculty Award and the winner of several data mining competitions, such as KDD Cup and INFORMS data mining competition. She has published over 60 referred articles and served as a program committee of SIGKDD, ICML, NIPS, CIKM, SIGIR, ICDM, AAAI, COLING, EMNLP and co-chair of workshops in KDD and ICDM. Her work is supported by federal funding agencies such as NSF and DARPA, and industries such as Yahoo! and ExxonMobil.

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Visualizing Innovation Pathways and Technology Development Concentrations: A New Global Patent Map and Overlay Map Technique

Abstract

This presentation describes a new global patent map approach that represents all technological categories, and a method to locate patent data of individual organizations and technological fields on the global map. This overlay map technique can support competitive intelligence and policy decision-making. The global patent map is based on similarities in citing-to-cited relationships between categories of the International Patent Classification (IPC) of European Patent Office (EPO) patents from 2000 to 2006. This patent dataset, extracted from the PATSTAT database, includes more than 760,000 patent records in 466 IPC-based categories. We compare the global patent maps derived from this categorization to related efforts of other global patent maps. To illustrate the kind of analytical support offered by this new approach, the presentation discusses examples based on the overlay of nanotechnology-related patenting activities of companies and different nanotechnology subfields on to the global patent map. The exercise shows the potential of patent overlay maps to visualize technological areas and potentially support decision-making. Furthermore, this presentation shows that IPC categories that are similar to one another based on citing-to-cited patterns (and thus are close in the global patent map) are not necessarily in the same hierarchical IPC branch, thus revealing new relationships between technologies that are classified as pertaining to different (and sometimes distant) subject areas in the IPC scheme.

Luciano Kay
University of California Santa Barbara

Biography

Luciano Kay is a Postdoctoral Scholar with the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at University of California Santa Barbara (CNS-UCSB) and a Research Associate with The Georgia Tech Program in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He does policy research and analysis in economic development, science and technology (S&T) and innovation policy topics. Luciano has focused mainly on bibliometric and patent analysis with particular application to corporate strategies in emerging fields such as nanotechnology. His most recent work includes the development of global patent maps and patent map overlays as a means to visualize the innovation landscape and benchmark companies, countries and technological fields with research and development (R&D) management, policy analysis and competitive intelligence purposes. Luciano has also investigated unconventional incentives for innovation such as prizes. His book "Technological Innovation and Prize Incentives. The Google Lunar X Prize and Other Aerospace Competitions" (Edward Elgar, 2012) presents case study findings and develops theoretical and practical implications for the design, implementation and evaluation of prize competitions, offering insights to entrepreneurs, professionals and other individuals or organizations interested in this phenomenon. Luciano's work has been published in international scholarly journals, books and book chapters and policy reports. He has worked on S&T projects with a number of governments and organizations and provided expert input to studies such as the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative PCAST reports to the U.S. President and Congress. Luciano holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Georgia Tech.

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Searching the future's challenges now

Abstract

Have you seen the new smart watch commercials, which feature classic TV and movie scenes showing people communicating via wrist devices? The point of these commercials is that the future is already here- the question is, are we as patent searchers ready for it? If you were asked to do a search around a technology new to your company, how would you go about it? How would you ensure that you are finding the relevant information to enable decision making? Obviously, you need to have a good method to quickly identify key concepts, retrieve relevant results, and present the results efficiently and effectively to your client. This talk will focus on one such method. Using a case study on 3-D biological printing, we will discuss how to narrow a broad request into a manageable question, and focus on methods for analyzing and presenting the search results. We will also discuss when to use this type of method as well as the types of searches for which it might be useful. By developing new ways of thinking about how we search, we as patent searchers can be ready for the future's challenges now.

Barbara Miller
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc.

Biography

Barbara Miller is currently the US Regional Head of the Search and Analytics Team at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, MA. Prior to joining Novartis in August of 2009, she was an Information Scientist at Pfizer in Groton, CT, where she supported a variety of research and development teams by providing literature, patent, regulatory, and competitive information. Barbara began her searching career at the Pfizer facility in Ann Arbor, MI, in 2001 as a biopatent searcher after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. She has a PhD in Biological Sciences from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, a MS in Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance from Temple University, and a BS in Chemistry from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN.

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Searching for Post-grant Events in the Life of a Patent

Abstract

This presentation will focus on techniques for finding legal status of granted patents and published patent applications. More and more legal status data is now available online. Most patent granting authorities such as USPTO, SIPO, JPO, EPO and others provide a large amount of legal status information on their respective web sites. Legal status of patents is also available from free internet search engines such as Google as well as subscription based patent information providers. Real life examples of finding legal status of some well-known patents, recently filed patent applications and some obscure patents from different patent offices will be presented. Challenges of navigating online patent information to arrive at reliable information will be highlighted in view of author's experience in this area.

Kartar Singh Arora
Landon IP

Biography

Kartar is an intellectual property professional with technical knowledge, expertise and skills in intellectual property management, patent law, innovation, commercialization, licensing and business development. He is presently working as a Patent Analyst at Landon IP on searching, analyzing and reporting patent, technical and business information. Kartar also advises on development and protection of intellectual property from his vast experience in this area.

Kartar is a Registered Patent Agent with experience in patent prosecution, drafting of patent applications, monitoring and coordination of patenting activities and patent management systems. Kartar holds a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Chemistry from the University of Michigan. He has industrial experience in development and improvement of products and more than twenty five years of successful career in R & D functions of major chemical companies including BASF and Henkel. His work has resulted in several patents and technical publications.

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Intellectual Property Protection Strategies for Nanotechnology

Abstract

Innovative techniques employing nanotechnology have realized explosive growth akin to the development of biotechnology. Hence, nanotechnology will be expected to have wide market applicability over myriad industrial sectors, including biotechnology. This growth and applicability will require careful consideration of intellectual property (IP) rights and protections for these new and exciting nanoscale endeavors. This presentation will equip inventors and potential investors with the tools and wherewithal to navigate through this period of exponential growth and opportunity in nanotechnology. More specifically, topics within the presentation will include basic IP definitions and strategies, including a brief review of relevant case law, and the potential impact of recent developments related to patent law reform.

Kevin Noson
Fernandez & Associates, LLP

Biography

Kevin Noson is a registered patent agent and completed his NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellow training at Harvard University. Mr. Noson received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA.

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Update on the Unitary Patent - a View from the Information Specialist

Abstract

Much has been debated and published about the latest proposal for a new form of European intellectual property right, to be called the Unitary Patent. However, most of the discussion has centred around the legal aspects (especially the court structure) and less attention has been paid to how the documentation will develop over time. This presentation will give an up-to-date review of how the scheme will work in practice, and what information will be made available to the general public, together with some hints on how to interpret it during patent search work.

Stephen Adams
Magister Ltd.

Biography

Stephen Adams is the managing director of Magister Ltd, a patent information consulting company. He has served as Director-at-Large to the PIUG Board 2002-2006, and also held various posts in the UK Patent and Trade Mark Group. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Elsevier journal 'World Patent Information', and frequently publishes in this journal and other professional periodicals. He is the author of the last 2 editions of "Information Sources in Patents", currently published by de Gruyter Verlag in Germany.

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Patent Searching Panel: What Patent Attorneys Want When It Comes to Searching & Reporting Search Results

Abstract

Have you ever wondered what patent attorneys look for in a search and the search report? A panel of senior patent counsel from a variety of technological backgrounds including both chemical and computer technologies will be discussing their views on the quality of patent searches in support of patent drafting, prosecution, opposition and litigation.

The moderated panel will cover attorney expectations, frustrations and preferences of the whole spectrum of patent searches. The panel is aimed at opening communication lines between patent attorneys and patent information professionals and informing both sides about the challenges associated with searching and search reports. Questions to the panel can be submitted prior to the conference to adavis at nuvasive dot com to be taken up by the moderator or posed directly to the panel during the event.

Moderator: Zhifu Shu

Zhifu is currently Team Leader of the Information Research and Analysis (IR&A) group at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. He has been with this group for the last 13 years. Prior to that, he was a polymer chemist for a total of 8 years with Johnson Polymer in Wisconsin and PPG in Pennsylvania. Zhifu holds a BS in Chemistry from Wuhan University, China, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

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A Patent System Ontology for Facilitating Retrieval of Patent Related Information

Abstract

The recent years have seen a tremendous growth in research and developments in science and technology, and an emphasis in obtaining Intellectual Property (IP) protection for one's innovations. Information pertaining to IP for science and technology is siloed into many diverse sources and consists of patents themselves, court litigations, scientific literature, and more. Although a great deal of legal and scientific information is now available online, the scattered distribution of the information, combined with the enormous sizes and complexities, makes any attempt to gather relevant IP-related information on a specific technology a daunting task. This paper describes a knowledge-based software framework to facilitate retrieval of patents and related information across multiple diverse and uncoordinated information sources in the US patent system. Specifically, a patent system ontology is designed to facilitate cross-domain retrieval. The system is demonstrated using a document corpus, which covers selected issued US patents, court litigations, scientific publications, and patent file wrappers in the biomedical technology domain.

This work is a joint research with Prof. Jay Kesan of College of Law at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Gloria Lau, Consulting Associate Professor at Stanford University and Senior Data Scientist at LinkedIn, and Mr. Siddarth Taduri, formerly Graduate Student at Stanford University.

Kincho Law
Stanford University

Biography

Kincho Law is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. His research and professional interests focus on the design and development of software tools to facilitate engineering and enterprise information integration and management. Since 2000, he and his research team, with projects sponsored by the National Science foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, have been actively involved in Internet (web service) computing, legal and regulatory informatics, compliance assistance and ontology-driven information retrieval. His research in the e-government domain has been awarded the Best Research and Practice Paper Award at the 6th International Conference on Electronic Governance (ICEGOV), Albany, New York, October, 2012; the Meritorious Paper Award on the Foundations of Electronic Governance, 4th International Conference on Electronic Governance (ICEGOV), Beijing, China, October, 2010; and the Best Research Paper Award, 9th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o2008), Montreal, Canada, May 2008. Prof. Law was the recipient of the 2011 Computing in Civil Engineering Award awarded by American Society of Civil Engineers.

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The Use of Patent Information to Support M & A Decisions

Abstract

The role of Patent Information in major corporate decisions is increasing in visibility and value. Patent analysis and visualization of data is required in providing this type of support.

Patent Information Users must present data in accurate and accessible ways to support many high stake decisions. We will examine a case study in which a patent professional supports a Merger/Acquisition study for a major corporation. The use of Patent Visualization tools will prove essential.

In the end, the legal and technical facts we provide about IP assets inform the business decision.

Miguel Iglesias
Questel

Biography

Miguel Iglesias started his career with Questel 10 years ago as a Sales Executive based in Paris, France. Prior to that, after obtaining a Master's Degree in Technical and Economical Translation from the Sorbonne University, Miguel worked as a technical translator specialized in patents. In 2008, Miguel relocated to the United States and was promoted Questel's Sales Manager for the Americas, his current position.

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Minesoft Milestones! Here We Grow Again!

Abstract

We take a look at the latest developments across Minesoft's product range, from PatBase enhancements to the recent integration of PatentOrder with Tempus IP services, and introduce you to the growing sales and support team here in the USA.

Doug van der Zee
Minesoft

Biography

Doug van der Zee joined Minesoft in October 2013 as Director of Business Development, North America. Having worked in the information aggregation and publishing industry since 1992, most recently for EBSCO Publishing and Wolters Kluwer Health/Ovid, Doug brings extensive experience to lead the Minesoft team in the USA. He has worked with clients ranging from small to medium firms to some of the World's largest corporations. Doug's experience with all industries makes him ideally suited to work with clients and his team in the patent field.

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The Next 30 Years: STN® Celebrates and Looks to the Future

Abstract

As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the launch of STN this year, we look back at what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what it means for the future of STN and professional patent searching. Many aspects of patent law, search technology and content have evolved significantly over the last three decades. The core objective of IP searchers to efficiently and comprehensively gather and analyze relevant publications is still fundamentally the same - and the commitment of STN to meet those objectives by providing the best available content collection, powerful search functionality, and reliable partnership is still the same today as when STN launched in 1984. As we look to the future, we embrace with great excitement the opportunities that new STN provides to ask questions differently, explore data in new ways and meet the ever-evolving needs of current and future generations of IP professionals.

Rainer Stuike-Prill
STN

Biography

Rainer Stuike-Prill is Vice President of Marketing & Sales at FIZ Karlsruhe. He joined FIZ Karlsruhe in 1993 and has extensive experience in patent and chemistry information. He held various positions in marketing and sales, including product management of the DWPI on STN, customer training and key-account management. In his current position, he is responsible for the marketing of all FIZ Karlsruhe product lines and for worldwide sales. Rainer Stuike-Prill has a Ph.D. in Chemistry. He graduated from the University of Oldenburg, Germany and the University of Georgia, U.S., in Organic and Computational Chemistry. Prior to joining FIZ Karlsruhe he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Denmark.

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Recent Developments at the EPO

Abstract

As the Patent Office for Europe, the EPO treats a large number of patent applications and manages vast amounts of patent information data. An update from a patent information perspective will be given among others on latest developments in areas like the unitary patent and products and services related to legal and procedural data.

Heiko Wongel
European Patent Office

Biography

Heiko Wongel is Director of Patent Information Promotion at the European Patent Office in Vienna. The task of his team is to enable the understanding and the effective use of patent information by informing and supporting users of patent information products and services. He holds a degree in physics from the University of Hamburg, Germany, where he worked in the field of applications of synchrotron radiation. He joined the EPO in The Hague in 1990 as a patent examiner in the field of electro-optics. For several years he was responsible for the management of the EPO's classification systems. From 2009 to 2010, he was acting Director of Classification.

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PATENTSCOPE & ePCT: New Features and Developments Overview

Abstract

Discover the World Intellectual Property Organization's achievements and advances towards the goal of delivering free electronic patent information and management services to the world.

Being the store-front of patents at the click of a button PATENTSCOPE brings you national, regional and international patent collections in a multilingual environment. Sophisticated analytical tools give you the power to quickly find and process information.

Enriched with new data collections PATENTSCOPE faces up to the challenge of keeping up with the ever growing need for complete and quality data for the global patent information community.

Learn about the methodologies and technologies that WIPO uses to effectively integrate and enrich its national data collections.

Find out how Patentscope and ePCT empower the applicants, offices and all the users of the services to easily and promptly get valuable information and help them learn from PCT and national patent applications.

Magdalena Zelenkovska
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Biography

Magdalena Zelenkovska is a software engineer working at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland. She has been responsible for data management of the PATENTSCOPE National Patent Collections since its inception in 2007.

Magdalena has been working for International Organizations since 2001 and her previous experience includes working for the International Organization for Migration. Her professional experience spans over fifteen years of continuous involvement in architecting of large data driven systems.

Magdalena received her Master's degree in Information Technology from the University of Liverpool, UK and she holds a bachelor in Computer Engineering.

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Activities & Progress of Patent Information Retrieval Contest (PIRC) in Japan

Abstract

The Patent Information Retrieval Contest has been held annually in Japan since 2007 and the organizer was changed from INPIT to IPCC at the beginning of April 2013.

We had about 200 participants at the last contest on October 26th, 2013. The participants use the PC/online databases at the examination venues to find answers to specific patent search questions. We have been trying to improve our new methods during these two years. For example, the contents of the questions have been changed, two examination levels (basic and advanced) have been prepared, team competition has been introduced, etc. The past two years have been very important for our activities. For the participants and those who were interested in PIRC, feedback seminars were held and textbooks for the past questions were published.

As two of the vice chairpersons for more than 6 years, we introduce our activities for PIRC including the feedback seminars.

Izumi Tsuzuki
Committee of the Online Patent Retrieval Contest in Japan

Sakae Nakamura
Asahi Kasei Corp.

Biographies

Izumi Tsuzuki worked for Maruzen for more than 10 years as an instructor of Dialog Information System and patent databases. After leaving that company, she joined a patent office in Osaka. After some years, she joined KMK Digitex and G-Search, which were providing information systems and agents of Dialog. From April 2005 to March 2014, she was an associate professor at the Graduate School of Intellectual Property of Osaka Institute (OIT) in Japan. She is one of the vice chairmen of the committee of the Online Patent Retrieval Contest organized by IPCC in cooperation with OIT and JAPIO. She holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Kyoto University in Japan.

Sakae Nakamura joined in Asahi kasei Corp. in 1985. In 1989, she was transferred to intellectual property department and responsible for patent acquisition and licensing business concerning health care and fiber. Later, she held a post in technical information search division under intellectual property department of Asahi Kasei Group established in 1998, and was promoted to a director for the division in 2006. In this role, she was in charge of providing training on information search and utilization for researcher in addition to specific searching. She also headed a division supplying consulting services on information search and information analysis in diverse industry.

From 2006 to 2008 she was a lecturer at graduate School of University of Kyoto and graduate School of University of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. In the last three years, she was a visiting lecturer at Yokohama City University. She is also a frequent speaker at other university concerning search and patent information analysis.

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To Collaborate or Not to Collaborate: The Case Study of Stem Cell Research in Israel

Abstract

The purpose of the proposed paper is to examine the link between collaboration and innovation. The method that was developed to do so aims to tie the methodology of patents bibliometrics and the realization that forward citations is a proxy for innovation with theoretical literature on collaboration.

Innovation policy is a source of economic growth. It is the main driving force of employment and income growth as well as national economic welfare and global competitiveness. While the importance of innovation is well established, the question that still remains is what mechanism should be employed to foster innovation.

One of the mechanisms discussed in the literature is the initiation of collaboration. Promoting collaborations and data sharing has become a pressing subject in recent years, and the subject of many discussions and reform initiatives around the world. Similar reforms were initiated in Israel under the supervision of the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour. In the stem cell field in Israel however these initiatives are scarce.

However, it is not entirely clear whether collaboration is the appropriate mechanism to foster innovation. The literature is somewhat divided as to collaboration as a tool to generate innovation - collaboration vs. silo structure (i.e., organizations working individually).

The empirical evidence is based on data collected on stem cell research in Israel. The method presented in the proposed paper aims to measures innovation using patents forward citations as a proxy for innovation. Forward citations are references to patents (cited patents) made by future patent applications (citing patents). The method is based on the seminal work of Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg which was the first to conclude that forward citations serve as an indicator of the innovative impact of the patented invention. Prior to this paper no attempts were made to explore the connection between the number of forward citations per patent and the identity of the collaborators in the organizational level. In this also lies the innovative strength of the proposed paper.

The proposed paper ends with an attempt to translate the results of the analysis to implications to current policy innovation, especially patents law.

This paper presents part of the work completed to date towards a Ph.D. degree.

Talya Ponchek
University of Haifa Faculty of Law, Israel

Biography

Talya is a doctoral candidate at University of Haifa, Faculty of Law, and a research fellow at the Haifa Center for Law & Technology (HCLT), Israel. Talya earned both her LL.B. and LL.M. in Law & Technology from University of Haifa, Faculty of Law. She participated in several projects funded by the Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology and Space. Talya was awarded the 2006 Aladdin Award for outstanding paper in law and technology and the 2008 Annual Martin Adelman Fellowship in Intellectual Property. During 2011 Talya was a visiting academic at University of Alberta School of Public Health, Canada, funded by the Israel Association for Canadian Studies Graduate Fellowship. Her thesis discusses the role of collaboration in the innovation process, through the case study of stem cell research in Israel, and aims to provide empirical data using econometric analysis of patents bibliometrics information.

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Understanding the Science & Art of IP Value to Help Optimize IP Strategy

Abstract

IP is becoming more global and complex, putting increasing demands on time and resources. Search, analysis, IP management, IP administration, licensing decisions, preparation and prosecution: all are important components of an organization's IP process. IP Valuation is an important part of this process that needs both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Like other forms of property, the value of intellectual property is determined by what the buyer is prepared to pay for its perceived value, and what the seller is willing to accept. This is ultimately decided by negotiation. However, before a settlement can be reached, there is much that can be done to substantiate the value of an intellectual property. From the seller's viewpoint, being able to place the IP accurately on the competitive landscape is critical to establishing how important the IP is, and hence its perceived market value. On the buyer's side, the accurate assessment of the market position held by the IP on the technology landscape against competition will help determine whether this is a blocking technology, or whether it can ultimately be worked around. In all cases, IP information and analysis tools play a central role in preparing the groundwork and basis for negotiation between both parties. Join us as we use a case study analysis to illustrate how applying the right IP information and analysis tools, and the use of high quality patent data, can help organizations to accurately assess the importance of their IP, and hence the current and potential market value of that IP and optimize their overall IP strategy.

Bob Stewart
Thomson Reuters

Biography

Bob Stewart is a 24-year veteran of the information industry. Currently Senior Planning Manager for the Product and Services Strategy group, Innovation and Asset Management, Bob began his career in information with Dialog in 1990 as a chemical content specialist for the southwestern US, holding a variety of sales, training and marketing positions at Dialog until moving into his current role at Thomson Reuters in 2008. He holds a degree in chemistry and is a member of the American Chemical Society, Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) and Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP).

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Creating a Recipe for Legal Status Reports

Abstract

Reporting the legal status of a collection of patents, whether the members of a family or a portfolio, is full of challenges. Using data from a variety of sources we will explore how to create a recipe to slice, dice, and bake legal status data into meaningful reports.

John Willmore
BizInt

Biography

John Willmore is Vice President, Product Development, for BizInt Solutions, Inc. and manages the development of all aspects of the BizInt Solutions product line. John has over 20 years of experience in processing, analyzing and integrating patent and drug pipeline information, and has worked closely with patent and drug pipeline publishers over that period. He was the head of the TRW Smart Charts team at TRW, Inc. and along with Diane Webb, founded BizInt Solutions in 1996. John has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rice University and over 20 years experience in software development. John plays amateur ice hockey and is an American Kennel Club judge for earthdog, dachshund field trials, and agility.

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A Wave of Change: Looking Inside ActionablePatents

Abstract

Professional patent information users of all disciplines face one common challenge within their fields: extracting valuable intelligence from raw data. In an ever changing industry, it is often difficult to keep up. ActionablePatents has been created to help users overcome challenges, while growing with the waves of change.

Taking a look inside ActionablePatents, it is more than just a simple patent search and analysis tool. ActionablePatents is an IP intelligence system that helps view market changes and helps project where the flow of technology is heading.

Ilsoo (Bryan) Kim
Wisdomain

Biography

Ilsoo (Bryan) Kim is the CEO and founder of Wisdomain providing a patent search, analysis, and report generating platform. Accumulating patent data in the IP marketplace is a valuable information source for formulating competitive IP strategies and making critical decisions. Knowing this, he has worked more than 15 years tying IP and IT together by developing value added IP databases and data analysis tools based on powerful algorithms that enable IP professionals to maximize their business intelligence from vastly growing information sources. As a result he has successfully completed several in-house IP system projects with Fortune 500 companies. He also developed a Web based IP intelligence reporting system that provides an automated IP data mining solution. Recently he invented patent valuation algorithms by combining patent and financial data to provide fact based patent values. Before Wisdomain he worked for IBM and Microsoft in Korea as an IT specialist. He holds a M.S. and B.S. in Engineering from Seoul National University.

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Patent Licensing & Negotiation Strategies

Abstract

This presentation addresses the methods and tools used throughout the licensing process. This starts with tools to identify which patents to license in or out, followed by finding potential licensing candidates. The process however is not done until a deal is closed, so equally important will be the methods and tools used to support licensing negotiations, both win-win and adversarial. Both database mining and human decision support methods and tools will be presented, so patent professionals can add value to each high value management decision along the licensing activity workflow.

Paul Germeraad
IntellectualASSETS Inc™

Biography

Paul Germeraad is a results oriented business executive with over 20 years of experience in creating business value based on effective integrated business, R&D, and intellectual property strategic planning, management, and monetization. A well respected member of the R&D and Licensing community, providing leadership in the development of cutting edge IP assessment and valuation tools. Dr. Germeraad's professional tenure includes:

• Chief Operating Officer, Aurigin Systems, Inc.
• Vice President, Corporate Research, Avery Dennison Corporation.
• Vice President and Trustee/Board Member, Licensing Executive Society (USA-Canada and International).
• Chairman and Board Member, IRI (Industrial Research Institute). Co-recipient of the Industrial Research Institute Maurice Holland Award 2009 for R&D Technology and Innovation.
• Member and Speaker, Gathering I, Association of Managers of Innovation, Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, Management Roundtable
• Instructor and Speaker at Executive Programs for CalTech, University of California Berkeley, University of Southern California
• B.A., University of California, San Diego; LLB, La Salle Extension University; Ph. D., Chemistry, University of California, Irvine

Dr. Germeraad holds 15 U.S. patents and applications, 24 foreign counterparts, contributing author to two books and author of over a dozen refereed articles.