We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the PIUG 2024 Joint Annual and Biotechnology Conference to be held May 5 - May 9, 2024 at the Drake in Chicago, IL. 

Why should you attend a conference in person?  With everything online these days, what can make you pack your bags and get on a plane?  We will have a mix of traditional talks, talks from vendors, time to interact with our vendors, traditional social time and unconference sessions.  Traditional talks will be recorded and available for virtual attendees.  Unconference sessions will only be live.

We are interested in papers from ALL sectors of the patent information community (chemistry, electrical, mechanical, software, pharmaceutical & biotechnology), and from ALL areas of the patent professional community (attorneys, agents, examiners, searchers (corporate and independent consultants) & tech transfer offices) on patent searching and analysis topics with an emphasis on practical applications and use cases. 

All topics related to biotechnology patent information research listed below will be considered but not limited to.

·         Human and animal health vaccines along with technology or delivery development

·         Digital health and digital therapeutics including wearable devices, biosensors, medical devices, companion applications and diagnostics

·         Policies, regulations or laws impacting biotechnology

·         Agricultural, animal, and food science

·         Cell and gene therapy including sequences, novel therapeutics including complex chimeras,  delivery mechanisms, manufacturing/production processes,  and formulations

·         The use of computer assisted searching such as text mining, machine learning or artificial intelligence in biotechnology patent searching to collect, summarize and report results

Unconference Topics

We would also like suggestions for any unconference topics that you would like to discuss.  Please send your suggestions to Martha Yates (martha.yates@bayer.com).  Potential topics could include vendor resources, websites, applications, soft skills such as client management, or anything else that relates to patent searching. If you would be interested in moderating an unconference session please contact Martha.  These sessions can be totally unstructured or have some structure with the goal being discussion- this is not meant to be a big time commitment or a talk.  Rather, the moderator will introduce the topic through a 1-2 slide introduction or using just a few sentences, and then ensure that the discussion keeps moving. Ideas will be voted on prior to the meeting to determine what will happen.

General Guidelines for Submitting Proposal/Topic/Ideas:

·         Send your paper title, abstract (max. 200 words), speaker names, affiliation, brief biography and full contact information to Martha Yates (martha.yates@bayer.com). Note: presentations are typically 30 min., followed by 5 min. questions and answers.

·         Do not include confidential or business-sensitive information in your abstract.

·         Please indicate if you think your topic would be better in the annual plenary or the biotechnology plenary.

·         If you would like to recommend a speaker or a topic for a presentation or an unconference session, please contact the PIUG 2024 Annual and Biotechnology Conference organizers, listed below, with your comments and suggestions.

·         Further news about the program and updates regarding the conference will be posted on the PIUG web site at www.piug.org and PIUG Community. Please see the web site for the tentative schedule.

Deadline is October 6, 2023. 

Please share this notice within your greater patent information community to enhance our outreach efforts.  Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to seeing you at the PIUG 2024 Annual and Biotechnology Conferences!

PIUG 2024 Annual and Biotechnology Conference Program Committee

Martha Yates, co-chair (Bayer, martha.yates@bayer.com)

Greg Roland, co-chair (Moderna, gregroland67@gmail.com)

Shelley Pavlek (BMS, shelley.pavlek@bms.com)