African-American Youth Inventor Workshops Back by Popular Demand
Spruce Fraser, St. Louis Public Library
Fair Use and Freedom of Expression of Trademarks in Instruction, Research, and Publishing
John Schlipp, Intellectual Property Librarian, Northern Kentucky University, Steely Library, Highland Heights, KY. Email contact: [email protected]
Researching the Early History of the Patent Policy: Getting Started
Rob Berry, Research Librarian, Sacred Heart University Library, Fairfield, CT

PTRC News for 2015

Akron, OH

Akron Summit County Public Library
Submitted by: Curtis Bower

The Akron Summit County Public Library has been a PTRC since 1995. The patent information is located in the Science and Technology Division of the Main Library. It has been a busy year here at the Akron PTRC. The biggest news from last year was that we embraced the Maker Movement a second time by hosting our second Mini Maker Faire. Overall, we had over 37 Makers participate in our Maker Faire, showing the public “what they make”. Continue reading

Amherst, MA

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Submitted by: Paulina Borrego

The University of Massachusetts Amherst Library has been part of the PTRC program since 1984 and I have been involved with the program since 2009. UMass Amherst PTRC serves the western part of the state while the Boston Public Library PTRC serves the eastern region. Located in the Science & Engineering Library, I am the only librarian involved in providing PTRC services to the community. Last spring we were fortunate enough to hire two new science & Continue reading

Ann Arbor, MI

University of Michigan
Submitted by: Leena Lalwani

The Ann Arbor MI PTDL is located in the Art, Architecture and Engineering Library (AAEL) in the Duderstadt Center at the University of Michigan. AAEL houses the Art & Design, Architecture & Urban Planning and Engineering Collections. We provided intellectual property support to our faculty and students including special innovation offices like Tech Transfer, and Medical Innovation from the university and we also worked with independent inventors from the state of Michigan. Leena Lalwani presented a Trademark Searching session at the USPTO Saturday Patent Seminar in July 2014 at the Detroit Satellite Office. Continue reading

Atlanta, GA

Georgia Tech Library
Submitted by: Lisha Li

The Georgia Tech Library has been undergoing a renewal process, which includes the construction of a new off-site Library Services Center (storage) shared with the Emory University Libraries to hold the majority of our print collections. We have been working with an outside consulting firm and architects to redesign the library services and space for a renewed 21st Century research library.

In the mist of all these on-going changes, Georgia Tech PTRC continued to offer daily one-on-one patent and trademark consultation/training to individual inventors, Continue reading

Burlington, VT

University of Vermont
Submitted by: Scott L. Schaffer

A few highlights from the Burlington PTRC.

• Craig Morris of the USPTO came to Burlington for a Trademark presentation in November. The presentation was engaging and informative for all.
• Following the lead of Jan Comfort and others, we are looking at putting out institution’s patents into ScholarWorks, the Institutional Repository (IR) for the University of Vermont.
• Engineering and Business students are asking lots of good questions about patents as part of their capstone projects. Continue reading

Cheyenne, WY

Wyoming State Library
Submitted by: Karen Kitchens

I am Karen Kitchens the Intellectual Property/Documents Librarian at the Wyoming State Library (WSL), located in Cheyenne. I have a BA in Political Science from The University of Akron and a Master of Library Science from Texas Woman’s University. At WSL I am primarily responsible for the United States Patent and Trademark Resource Center Program (PTRC) and the Federal Documents Repository Program collections, which are housed at the WSL. I have resided in Wyoming for 24 years and have worked at WSL for 5 ½ years. Continue reading

Cincinnati, OH

Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County
Submitted by: Linda Kocis

The Cincinnati Patent & Trademark Resource Center is located in the Information & Reference department of the Main Branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County (PLCH). The Library has been a member of the PTRC since the program started, so we are lucky to have bound patents going back to the late 1840s. We even have British patents from 1640-1915.

Linda Kocis is the Intellectual Property Librarian and this past summer, Continue reading

Clemson, SC

Clemson University
Submitted by: Jan Comfort

This has been an exceptionally busy year! Since last year’s seminar, lots of things have happened. Here are some highlights. And these are just the things related to Patents and Trademarks!

• I participated in the judging process of the Senior Design projects for Bioengineering. (You may recall that previously I called attention to a project that won first place in the BME Start competition for undergraduate biomedical/bioengineering students with a prize of $10,000. Continue reading

Cleveland, OH

Cleveland Public Library
Submitted by: Jim Bettinger

Jim Bettinger is the new PTRC representative, succeeding Robin Speigner upon her retirement in April 2014. While Jim is currently in Science & Technology Dept. on the 3rd floor of the Louis Stokes Wing, the PTRC is located in Government Documents Dept. on the 4th floor of LSW. The two staff members in Government Documents are Mona Brown and Erick Walker.

As an urban library trying to recover from one of the hardest-hit communities of the fiscal crisis, Continue reading

College Station, TX

Texas A&M University
Submitted by: Jared Hoppenfeld

Howdy from the Texas A&M University West Campus (Business) Library, home of the College Station, Texas PTRC since December 22, 1983. I, Jared Hoppenfeld, along with assistance from library staff member Boyd Conerway, are happy to assist students, faculty, and community members with their P&T questions. Since last seminar, I taught a half-day workshop in July on patents and trademarks at the Texas STEM Librarians’ Conference. I have also established an ongoing relationship with an Innovative Product Design class that invites me to speak about intellectual property every semester. Continue reading

Dallas, TX

Dallas Public Library
Submitted by: Kathy Berry

Howdy, folks, and welcome to the Dallas Public Library in Dallas, Texas. Good things happened at the Dallas library: new staff was hired, new programs were developed, and community relations prospered.

An all-day Patent and Trademark seminar for the public in September was presented by trainers from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria Virginia, as well as representatives of Dallas-area organizations that offer assistance to inventors and entrepreneurs, such as the Texas Inventors Association and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Technology Commercialization Center. Continue reading

Dayton, Ohio

Wright State University
Submitted by: Ran Raider

The Paul Laurence Dunbar Library has been a PTRC since 2000. Our PTRC collection is located in the Information Commons area of the main library. Access to PubWEST and PubEAST is through the Information Commons reference Desk. A small collection of hard copy materials are available adjacent the “patent workstations.”

In 2014, we had 561 requests for patent and trademark information through email, telephone, appointments and a few from Twitter®! Community presentations were well attended with 129 attendees. Continue reading

Detroit, MI

Detroit Public Library
Submitted by: Mary Kordyban

Detroit PTRC 2014 has been a challenging year for us here at the Detroit Public Library. As we move into 2015 there is a spirit of optimism. We are lean and mean, and working harder than ever to provide good customer service.

Our focus last year had been on outreach and involvement with inventor groups. We have also been reaching out to the local business community with a dual purpose. We’ve been marketing our business resources and PTRC services together. Continue reading

Fairfield, CT

Sacred Heart University
Submitted by: Barbara J. Hampton

Our PTRC facility is located in the main library at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT. Rachel Gaither, our former Business Librarian, began the program in 2008. Since that time, our Social & Behavioral Sciences Librarian, Robert Berry, has extended the reach of the program beyond the campus by organizing patent and trademark workshops in public libraries. He trained me to work with novice searchers at the library and gave me the opportunity to participate in public presentations. Continue reading

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Broward County Library System
Submitted by: Eileen Fischlschweiger

My name is Eileen Fischlschweiger, and I’ve been the Fort Lauderdale PTRC Representative for eighteen years, having worked at the PTRC in the capacity of Patent and Trademark Librarian for twenty years. I have been a librarian with the Broward County Library System for over 26 years. My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Science in both Chemistry and Physics (double major). I also have a Master’s degree in Communications, a considerable amount of graduate level coursework in Education, Continue reading

Honolulu, HI

Hawaii State Library
Submitted by: Stewart Chun

Aloha to everyone from our corner of the world.

This past year has been exciting for us. It all started with a simple message that PTRCP staff was going to come and visit us this year. Upon confirmation, I discuss this welcome event with several people. The first person I talked to was with Emily Dovermann, who had attended last year’s seminar. She was excited because she wanted to do a display. Unfortunately, Continue reading