Digest VII - January 2017

At the end of 2016 , I said I’d write a conferences edition, looking at events of interest to those working in the patent information field. So here it is – as well as looking back at some conferences from 2016, I’m also looking forward to some 2017 events. Perhaps this will help you to decide which meeting to attend, and even if you’re not able to attend, many events make the presentations available on their website, or through SlideShare afterwards.

Why do we attend conferences?

Of course, there are usually multiple reasons, and these differ by organisation. An exhibitor or sponsor will be primarily there for sales reasons.   Both meeting potential new customers and with existing customers. Probably also to keep up with their industry, and find out what their competitors are up to.   Attendees at conferences, I think particularly information and IP related events, are there too for networking. Given that many in this profession work in companies where they are the sole provider of information services, this is a vitally important aspect, along with keeping up to date with IP analytics software, search tools, and service providers, to make sure they are using the most appropriate for them at the best price. Looking to the future is also important, keeping an eye open to see what new tools may be entering the market.

Attendance at many conferences is declining, but some have stable or even growing numbers of attendees and sponsors. So getting the ingredients right clearly helps. How about location?   That must be important too.   Most of us prefer an easy-to-fly-to (or train to) location, an attractive city, and a nice, reasonably priced hotel also help.

How to choose a conference

Who hosts conferences? And what makes for a good event? Knowing who is organising the conference or event, and thinking about why they may be hosting it can help you choose the most appropriate event. Also it’s important to choose between an event which offers an exhibition, if your main objective is to compare the patent search tools or other IP software available, or to choose a conference or learning based event when you are looking for new insights and educational elements too. Events are discussed below, and are grouped according to the type of organisation putting on the event, starting with those hosted by patent offices, then looking at vendor events, and finishing with the independent events. Extract Information maintains a calendar of forthcoming events, to help you with planning.   Hope to see you at a conference in 2017!

Patent Office events
The IP5 patent offices all host events, those offering full conferences with exhibitions are hosted by the European Patent Office (EPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office ( KIPO) and China IP Office (SIPO). The event organised by JPO is primarily an exhibition. The USPTO and WIPO do both host events, but these tend to be focussed on particular aspects and are more informational, or involve specific focus or other user groups. The annual EPO PIC is the largest and well respected patent information conference in Europe with about 400 attendees from industry, the IP offices, many search, management, and legal professionals attend. This year 29 organisations exhibited, and these comprised 11 patent database providers, 3 translation companies, 3 patent offices, 4 analytics companies, and 8 other service providers. The 7th Patent Information Annual Conference of China (PIAC) was held in Beijing with over 4,000 attendees, a conference and exhibition in October, it is the largest event of its kind in China.  The European Patent Office also hosts Search Matters, usually in March, alternately in Munich or The Hague, and East Meets West, in Vienna. Search Matters has no exhibition, and it is a great place to learn how the EPO examiners approach patentability searching. East Meets West is a must to keep up to date with Asian patent information, patent prosecution and legal practice.

Vendor events
Increasingly providers of databases and other IP information software host their own events, inviting users and also potential customers, interested in finding out more. These events can be a useful introduction, and because competitors will not be present, the host organisation may be more open. In October 2016 Aistemos held it’s annual Cipher User Conference, in London, UK and Questel, also hosted several events around Europe, including a day dedicated to “Intellectual Property & data analysis challenges in life sciences and chemistry” . Linguamatics hosts bi-annual Text Mining Summits for its community. The autumn event takes place in Chatham, MA, USA in October, and in the spring a similar event takes place in Cambridge, UK. Linguamatics’ summits present practical approaches to text mining and knowledge discovery and are a good place to learn about latest developments to I2E, which may be put to work on patent data as well as life sciences publications.

Other events
In Europe there are several independent meetings which have a large patent information element. In April, II-SDV organised by Christoph Haxel and located in Nice provides an opportunity to look to the future of information retrieval, and IP analytics. The 2017 programme already looks very interesting. Whereas in June the largely German speaking event PatInfo, organised by the Technische Universitaet in Ilmenau, Germany, focusses on current practice with talks on patent searching such as approaches to Freedom to Operate (FTO), and patent management with a good mix of speakers from universities, patent offices and industry. IPI Confex, takes place in March, in Italy, the programme features patent office speakers, several vendors, and industry participants, with an update on CEPIUG Certification progress from Bettina de Jong.   Further afield, the PIUG , the US-based Patent information User Group holds several events throughout the year, its annual conference in May, the biotechnology meeting in February, and a North East conference in September. The events present a mixture of talks from patent users, and software providers, all are selected by programme committees to retain impartiality, and quality of talks.     Each event has an exhibition as well as the plenary talks. Last year PatentSight attended the PIUG NE conference. Last year closer to home saw the 1st Cambridge Information and Intellectual Property Meeting (CIIPM) get off the ground. This new meeting, created space for technologists, legal professionals, IP analysts, and patent information industry companies to look at IP, information and commercialisation issues.   The 2nd CIIPM is planned for 5th July 2017, and the programme, which will be centred around early stage innovation and information considerations will be announced later this month. India is of growing importance in the patent information world, and this is no surprise given the number of patent information professionals working there, many for global companies.   GIIP held the first IP Skills summit, in Bangalore which featured full length presentations, networking and some very information panel discussions. The first conference of each year is probably the GIPC event with IP legal, technology transfer, and information strands in January for the last two years in New Delhi.

Hope to see you at a patent information event in 2017!