Blog-Posts from Jul 18, 2010

I was floored.  Quite simply I could not believe what I had just heard.

A man wearing a casual button down shirt and jeans approached me as I was entering the opening reception for the Annual Meeting this May.  He extended his hand and said, "I understand you're Tony, the incoming Chair of PIUG. I'm Bob Stoll, Commissioner of Patents at USPTO."

I shook his hand and told him how happy I was to meet him and thanked him for providing us with our Keynote address which we were looking forward to hearing on Monday morning to launch the 2010 Annual Meeting.

It was nice of Commissioner Stoll to seek me out that way but that was not the part of the conversation that floored me.  That came after we exchanged pleasantries and he concluded by saying, "We would love to host a visit for you to come by the office.". That's the part that floored me.  The number two person at arguably the largest patent office in the world was inviting the new Chair of PIUG to come by for a visit and was opening the door for our organizations to get to know one another better.

That was not the only thing Commissioner Stoll did for PIUG while he was attending our meeting.  For those of you who were able to attend he gave a riveting Keynote address without the benefit of a single PowerPoint slide.  He was candid and took us behind the scenes of the many changes that are taking place at the USPTO and he left ample time for answering quite a few questions from the attendees.  Commissioner Stoll also made a few phone calls after spending some time with us and suggested that USPTO's new IT Strategist Marti Hearst join us at the meeting to get our perspectives on some changes the office is thinking of making to the way US Classifications are handled and represented to the user community.  We were fortunate to be able to have Dr. Hearst speak at lunch during the meeting and she expressed an interest in continuing the dialog with PIUG members as they move forward.  I alluded to this interaction in an earlier blog post and I am happy to report that we have made the arrangements for my trip to Washington.

I will be visiting with Commissioner Stoll, Dr. Hearst and a few other departments at the USPTO on Monday, July 26th.  The proposed agenda is below:

10am-11am  Meeting w/Marti Hearst

11am-11:45am  Meeting w/Commissioner Stoll

11:45am-1:00pm   Lunch w/Marti Hearst

1:30pm-2:30pm   Meeting w/STIC (Scientific and Technical Information Center) staff

2:45pm-3:45pm   Meeting w/EBC and PAIR staff

I am very excited about this opportunity for PIUG and it's members and I would like to ask all of you to make suggestions in the comments field or by sending me an email (tony@piug.org) about questions or comments you would like me to share with Commissioner Stoll or any of the other members of the USPTO staff while I am visiting on the 26th.  I have very high hopes that this will be the first of many meeting between PIUG members and management and the people at the USPTO.

One of the messages I intend to deliver to Commissioner Stoll while I am there is that PIUG members can be a tremendous resource for the USPTO in helping them better understand the needs of the user community around the product they deliver.  We have already started providing feedback on some of the US Classification revamping that the office is planning and I think there will be a number of additional ways that PIUG members can help the USPTO with their mission.  For instance USPTO is currently looking for public comment on their Strategic Plan for 2010-2015.  I would like to see us as a group hold some conference calls or start making comments on our wiki about what our response might be to the office on their plan and send this feedback to the USPTO.

In addition to asking for suggestions on what to cover during the visit I would also like to hear feedback from you on whether we should be focusing on providing feedback to the USPTO when they post a request for public comment.  Besides the Strategic Plan there are a number of other opportunities to provide comments to the office currently open and if enough people respond that they think it is a good idea for PIUG to respond as a group I would like to see us get organized and begin to provide this feedback.

This is an exciting opportunity for PIUG and I would like to see us make the most of it.  Don't be shy and please post comments to this post or privately via email on how we can best take advantages of these opportunities to forge a stronger working relationship with the USPTO.

Thanks for your time,

Tony