The year 2011 was a busy year for us. In April, we moved into our newly renovated department. For a year we had shared cramped quarters with another department as construction took place.
In July 2011 we were invited to share a booth with the USPTO at the Maker Faire, which was a 2 day event for those who like to make things. It was a great experience, not only for us, but for the attendees, as it was a rare opportunity to have us, the USPTO, Commerce Connect, plus other local agencies all in the same spot. The same person approaching any one of us on a regular basis would have a much longer journey of information gathering through referrals.
September 2011, we began a series of Monthly Seminars. Bold Trademarks for Your Business, Basic Patent Searching, Marketing Your Invention, Copyright for Creative People, and African American Inventors: through history to today, were presented and received great reviews from attendees. In addition, I published two short articles in the MDMLG Newsletter: Medical Patents (Summer 2011) and Pharmaceutical Trademarks (Fall 2011).
Our PTRC works with two inventors groups, the Inventors Association of Metro Detroit (IAMD) and the Inventors Council of Mid Michigan (ICMM). For three years, IAMD was inactive, and the ICMM is an hour’s drive from Detroit. IAMD was reactivated in October 2011 because of a partnership our library formed with the Lawrence Institute of Technology Library (LTU). LTU agreed to host the meetings, and the first meeting was held on January 26, 2012. Both Cathy Phillips, librarian at LTU Library, and I are members of the board of IAMD.
Photograph: left to right – Barbara Yokom, DPL, John Calvert, USPTO, Mary Kordyban, DPL. Maker Faire, July 30, 2011