PIUG members provide an open forum for themselves and non-members to answer questions on patent information, new products in the field, and pitfalls to be careful of in performing this kind of research. Members also make each other aware of professional meetings that are eminent, provide listings of job opportunities and advocate for changes they feel commercial vendors should make to improve products. In reading the comments of various members, it was clear this is a pragmatic group, they attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff of patent information, and are quite critical of products which do not perform as promised by vendors.
Members who have attended professional meetings comment on the highlights of those meetings, occasionally gossiping on business activities of information vendors and individuals connected to information technology. One of the members, PIUG's co-chairperson Vicky Veach, conducted a survey which included data on the age of members, years of experience in the field, and salaries. She also took not of the different technical backgrounds members come from, and their education and geographical location.
PIUG also assemblies a directory of all members which includes name, corporate or academic affiliation, address, phone and FAX number. Scanning the directory, note that members are located in every part of the country and Canada. Many members are connected to prominent corporations such as American Cyanamid, Monsanto SmithKline Beechmam, and the major oil companies. A smaller amount, such as the Franklin Pierce Law Center Research Lecturer Jon R. Cavicchi, are associated with academic institutions.
An article by member Sharon Peterson is quite helpful. She compiled listings of patent information for vendors and producers on the World Wide Web. This article included brief descriptions of the resources available, as well as addresses for on-line access. Ms. Peterson also described, in a separate compilation, general patent information sources and the appropriate WWW addresses. Here I'd like to note that every article written by PIUG members end with the author's on-line address.
Members speak out, not only about informational products provided by commercial vendors, they suggest ways that U.S. governmental agencies, especially the Patent and Trademark Office could improve with respect to making patent information available. There is a great deal of discussion on changes brought on by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Members are concerned about world-wide search capabilities for themselves and the PTO. Suggestions were made by member Nancy Lambert at the International Chemical Information Conference in Annecy, France on the problem of various governments charging inflated prices for raw patent data, while at the same time offering less than effective governmental patent search materials. As a side note, it is clear for the article that these international meetings on informational specialists, many government patent officials also attend. These conferences seem like an ideal forum to sort out difficulties.
In summary, this author was quite impressed with the Patent Information Users Group, the general membership and the PIUG officers. All have a genuine interest in being helpful to others in patent searching, and the critiques of commercial products help individuals who are making large investments on information technology make a wise choice. This author believes the members will make a positive difference in how governments and international patent organizations interface with the general public. Anyone who deals with patent information on a regular basis would be greatly aided by being connected to PIUG.