Out-going Patent Librarian Steven Gaither helped coordinate a USPTO “America Invents Act Roadshow” at Dallas Public Library. The audience of 170 attendees included patent attorneys, patent agents, and independent inventors.
Patent Librarian Greg Browder attended the Texas Inventors Association meetings in July and November, where he networked with local inventors and distributed information from the Dallas Public Library’s PTRC. During introductory remarks at the July meeting, Association President and Patent Attorney Robert Wise commended the PTRC as a useful resource for area inventors. Following the November meeting, Greg followed up on a question from one of the attendees about the steps involved in the patent examination process.
Patent Librarian Greg Browder attended the Dallas Regional Chamber’s Patent Issue Forum. The event was highlighted by the Keynote Address from USPTO Director David Kappos, whose office recently selected the Dallas area as the site for one of four new regional satellite patent offices. Mr. Kappos addressed the importance of technology innovation to the North Texas region. Also in association with the planned Dallas regional office, USPTO representatives and staff from the City of Dallas’s Economic Development and Intergovernmental Services offices toured Dallas Public Library’s PTRC.
We continued to offer the bi-monthly One-to-One Question and Answer Workshops. Government Information Center Manager Johanna Johnson and Patent Librarian Greg Browder coordinated these workshops in which individual inventors enjoyed 20-minute sessions meeting with Patent Attorney and former Patent Examiner Bob Wise. This program always receives high ratings from attendees and inevitably has a waiting list for the next time the sessions are offered. A sampling of comments from Evaluations included: “This is a great resource!”, “Great, knowledgable and helpful staff!”, and “I learned a lot about getting an invention protected”.