The Oklahoma State University Library has been a Patent and Trademark Depository Library since 1956. We are housed in the main University Library and are part of the Government Documents Department, a regional depository for federal government documents. This year, seventy percent of the federal materials on our floor were relocated to remote storage to make room for a learning center/lab for the Math Department.
Researchers/inventors make appointments with us to work one-on-one, and we have many contacts by phone. Our website includes most of our service information and links to information for inventors at USPTO: http://www.library.okstate.edu/patents/.
Our PTRC plays a support role to other IP departments on campus in addition to working with independent inventors. I work with the New Product Development/Inventor’s Assistance Center, also the Technology Development Center (tech transfer office). I train their graduate assistants annually and encourage them to have clients requiring in-depth research assistance contact us. The NPDC is creating online modules in the area of new product development and intellectual property; I have created the preliminary research module. I provide a seminar on trademarks at the basic training workshops given by the Food and Agricultural Products Center.
I continue to emphasize to researchers the importance of searching patents in addition to journal literature. The LibGuide I have developed “Patents Online: Basics for Researchers,” includes an overview of patents in addition to searching by topic and fields, http://info.library.okstate.edu/patentsonline
I am serving on the University’s Intellectual Property Screening Committee, under the University’s Technology Development Center, meeting periodically to review applications submitted by OSU faculty as potential research for commercialization.
We have new Small Business Development Center in Stillwater.
I was invited to speak this year at a business plan competition hosed by our Entrepreneurship program in the College of Business. This resulted in working with students one on one to help them develop the IP in their proposals; and some of these were projects they would be pursuing as real business opportunities.!
We had hope to have John Calvert visit via a webinar with a 70 freshman engineering students, but we are going to schedule this for another year.
Thank you to the PTRC Office for all of their help and support and I appreciate the opportunity to continue to be able to serve as the PTDL newsletter editor.