PATLIB 2010 - Dresden

This years PATLIB conference took place in Dresden Germany and was attended by Stef Stephenson from PATLIB Leeds and myself.

The conference was divided into three channels;

Channel 'A' - Tools
Channel 'B' - Business
Channel 'C' - Patent and IP Practice

As the plenary sessions and the seminars for each channel were run at different times attendees were able to pick and chose which seminars they attended without worrying about missing relevant papers presented during the plenary sessions. All of the presentations are available online via the EPO website.

The new format also helped keep speakers on topic with papers and seminars appearing much more relevant to the theme of the conference this year.

Fran Taylor of the British Library marketing team gave a very good presentation on Web 2.0 and the value of social networking sites to enterprises such as ours. If you get time I would strongly recommend that you read through her presentation. If you have any questions about social networking and its value to PATLIBs Fran would be happy to speak to you. She can be contacted be mailto:frances.taylor@bl.uk

I acted as moderator for the Channel 'B' Business plenary session on the afternoon of 1st June. There were three speakers each of which described their different methods of providing assistance to SME's in their areas. The one I found most interesting was given by Patricia Escudero of the Spanish Patent Office who told us about the Spanish Patent Office's Virtual Office, an online facility whereby anyone from anywhere in Spain can get all the help and guidance they need to decide which form of IP is most relevant to them and how to apply etc without leaving their home/office. They can even engage in 'live chat' with a member of Spanish Patent Office staff if needed.

On the evening of Monday 31st May all delegates had the opportunity of visit PATLIB Dresden. This was an eye opening visit for me. Having visited the UK PATLIBs I always felt that some of us were very short on space and facilities for our clients, well PATLIB Dresden is very small indeed (Stef may have a picture which we can post later), but they are still able to offer a full range of services to their clients as well as displaying a fair sized collection of IP related documents.

The conference next year will be in the Hague, at the EPO headquarters and will lean heavily towards training, again another departure from the norm for Conference but one which I feel will be much more relevant to most PATLIBs.

Away from conference would everyone please note the new contact details for PATLIB Manchester;


Chris Brown
Information Officer Intellectual Property Manchester Library and Information Service Manchester PATLIB City Library Elliot House
151 Deansgate
Manchester
M3 3WD
Tel: 0161 234 1397
Internal: 800 1397
E-mail: C.Brown1@manchester.gov.uk
Web-site: http://www.manchester.gov.uk/patlib

These will apply until further notice.

Regards

Maria

Maria Lampert
PATLIB London
Chair PATLIB UK