Inventors attend one of the conference breakout sessions.

250 Attend Annual Independent Inventors Conference

Inventors from all over the United States gathered August 8-9 for a conference designed to educate and support America’s vibrant independent inventor community. The 250 attendees heard presentations from successful inventors and entrepreneurs and attended breakout sessions on a wide variety of topics. Experts from the USPTO conducted workshops on searching, application preparation for patents and trademarks, advanced tips for seasoned inventors, claim construction and commercializing intellectual property through licensing. As always, the conference provided the inventors with lots of time to network and meet one on one with speakers and presenters.

This year for the first time the general sessions were web cast and over 100 people logged on to the USPTO website for those presentations.  Video of the general sessions will be posted later this week.

In conjunction with this year’s conference, the USPTO rolled out a new feature on its Inventors Resource page, computer based training. The first video training session is called “From Concept to Protection.”   It can be viewed at https://uspto.connectsolutions.com/conceptprotection/ [Adobe Acrobat Connect Presentation].   Additional short training videos will be added in the future.

Children from the Camp Invention Program join Under Secretary Jon Dudas in watching the USPTO Museum's Portrait Gallery Video Exhibit at it's opening last week

USPTO Unveils New Educational Museum Exhibit
Electronic “Portrait Gallery” Brings History of the U.S. Intellectual Property System to Life

The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today unveiled a new exhibit at the USPTO Museum highlighting past and present individuals who have made a contribution to America's intellectual property (IP) system.

USPTO Seeks Practitioners to Test Online Continuing Education System

The USPTO is developing a Continuing Education for Practitioners (“CEP”) system for on-line delivery of educational materials to patent practitioners, and is seeking help in piloting the on-line system. The CEP system is built on the recognition that a smoothly operating patent system requires well-qualified USPTO personnel working hand-in-hand with up-to-date patent practitioners. The goal is to increase efficiency, reduce pendency, and improve quality in the patent process.

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USPTO Identifies New Applicability Date of Certain Provisions in "Claims and Continuations" Final Rule

In a notice published in the Federal Register, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) alerted the public to a new applicability date of regulatory provisions dealing with related applications in the “Claims and Continuations” Final Rule. This Final Rule was permanently enjoined by the district court in Tafas v. Dudas on April 1, 2008, and the decision is currently on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

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