Philadelphia, PA

The Philadelphia PTRC is located in the Business Resource & Innovation Center (BRIC) of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s largest public library, the Parkway Central Library, which is located on the beautiful Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City Philadelphia. The Philadelphia PTRC has been located within the BRIC since approximately 2009, when it migrated from the Government Publications Department in the library. Somewhere back in the far mists of time, the Philadelphia PTRC was located at the Franklin Institute, our science museum neighbor across Logan Circle. (This cool historical fact is courtesy of Martha Sneed at last year’s conference.)

Sharyl Overhiser has been the PTRC representative since October 2014, and is excited to expand the programming for patents & trademarks. The Philadelphia PTRC hosts quarterly, free, one-on-one IP attorney sessions for eight fortunate patrons, generously provided by IP attorney John S. Child, Jr. of the firm Paul & Paul. The PTRC has also been happy to host twice yearly lectures from visiting trademark guru Craig Morris from the USPTO, and in April the library is welcoming the president of the local inventors’ group to present “Inventors’ 101,” a seminar detailing specifics for new inventors.

During the past year the Philadelphia PTRC has formed an alliance with the local Patent Pro Bono group for the state of Pennsylvania and had representatives attend their launch event in February. The PTRC staff has been invited by the University of Pennsylvania Law School to attend their 9th Penn IP Group Symposium on “Innovation and IP Assets: from Startups to Big Business,” which dovetails nicely with the department’s mission for the Business Resource & Innovation Center (BRIC), where the PTRC is located.

The PTRC is also doing a brisk business in ever increasing numbers of patent & trademark questions and instructional sessions. We are busier than ever. Come visit!