First of all, let me tell you how much I look forward to attending this year’s seminar! It’s been a few years since I have gone, and I can’t wait to see all of the familiar faces and new ones as well. I am excited to learn about all of the changes that are coming for the US patent system. Jay Osborne will be attending again this year as well.
Our PTRC, inaugurated in 1999, is in the Library’s Science and History Division. There are 3.5 FTE people working in the division. Most of us have been fortunate enough to have received this training before. We have a new coworker in our division and we’re hopeful she may attend next year. Our library is going through some short-term as well as long-term major changes. Some divisions will be physically moving, staff members are training in multiple locations, and we in the Science and History Division have a new boss. So, a lot of things have changed over the past year and will continue to do so through the interim.
However, in the meantime, our Chester F. Carlson Patent and Trademark Resource Center continues to grow, slowly. The Inventors Society of Western New York has finally re-emerged and is meeting at a local University, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Their first meeting was held January 18th of this year, and I was asked to speak on behalf of our PTRC. It was an honor to be the spotlight of their first meeting at their new venue. So, we’ve re-established our connection with them even though they are not convening at the library anymore.
Our outreach services continue to expand. As I mentioned, we spoke at RIT, but we are also speaking at RRLC, Rochester Regional Library Council, and a few public libraries as well. When I did my annual binge contacting many local colleges, libraries, and schools, I also broadened my reach and went as far as the Syracuse public library system (about 2 hours away). I’ve had a few nibbles because of the mailings I did.
We continue to be part of the Invention Convention, and Alla Levi and Steve Nash are on their board, as well as judges for the inventions. The goal is to stimulate the development of students’ creativity and imaginations, thereby building a new generation of American inventors. Students from grades of 1 through 8 from public and private schools in the Rochester and Finger Lakes Region can participate. It is a great collaboration between the schools, and our younger generations and the Patent and Trademark Center. We display 6 or 7 of the “showy” inventions and have a reception for the children and their families. I had a gentleman who came in today actually (1/19) to work on Intellectual Property for his software. He heard about the resources we have through his school.
As I may have mentioned, my mom and I have applied for a utility patent. We went first with a Provisional Patent Application and are now doing the necessary steps to be granted a Utility patent. Hopefully, we will hear soon whether or not we were granted our US patent.