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 four years that were held in Vancouver, Washington; Lombard, Illinois; Garden Grove, California; and Alexandria, Virginia. Each 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 220 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 USA South.  This year, we have introduced an enhanced Meeting App which we purchased from Crowd Compass.  Instructions for downloading are found HERE 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 Atlanta and conference related announcements afterwards.  

Registration

The deadline for Early-bird registration is March 31, after which rates will increase. Register NOW. Rates are available by clicking details under the PIUG 2017 Annual Conference on the PIUG Calendar Page.

Keynote Speaker

We are excited to announce that Nicholas Belkin, Distinguished Professor of Information Science, Department of Library & Information Science, School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University will present the keynote address at the conference. He is best known for his work on human-centered information retrieval and development of the cognitive viewpoint in information science. His research involves information-seeking behaviors, and the interaction between humans and information retrieval systems. He is a recipient of the ACM SIGIR Salton Award, and the ASIS&T Award of Merit.

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 Stephen Adams
Members – Kartar Arora, Andrea Davis, Dominic DeMarco, Ron Kaminecki, and Zhifu Shu

Planning Committee

Planning Co-Chairs – Martha Yates and Ken Koubek
Stu Kaback Business Impact Award Committee – Stephen Adams, Malcolm Hallam, Elliott Linder, Sandra Unger, and Martha Yates
Brian Stockdale Award Committee – Edlyn Simmons (Chair), Stephen Adams, Ken Koubek, and Tony Trippe
Evaluations – Ken Koubek
Gifts – Ken Koubek
Hospitality - Nils Newman
First Time Attendee Welcome & Orientation – Suzanne Robins (Chair) and the Member Relations Committee
Meeting Book – Diane Webb
Photography – Sandra Unger, Jim Brown & Yuri Mozolev
Social Media – Chrissy Geluk
Sponsorship & Exhibits – Jane Thompson (Chair) & Ken Koubek
Travel – Ken Koubek
Webpages – Tom Wolff (Webmaster)
Workshops – Martha Yates