WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office plans to host a special training week for its patent examiners next month.
Deputy Director Michelle K. Lee, in a blog post, said the training sessions aim to address President Barack Obama’s request for strengthening the quality and accessibility of the nation’s patent system.
“One of these initiatives focused on the critical need for examiners to stay up-to-date in their technical fields of expertise through more robust technical training to enable them to perform the best examination possible,” she wrote.
The Patent Examiner Technical Training Program, or PETTP, allows scientists, engineers, professors, industrial designers and other technology experts the opportunity to provide technical training directly to patent examiners.
Specifically, volunteer guest lecturers share their expertise on technical developments, the state of the art, emerging trends, maturing technologies and recent innovations.
Lee said so far this year, more than 90 experts have provided training to examiners on topics ranging from nanotechnology to virtual reality welding to the chemistry of chocolate as part of the program.
She said the office, for the first time, will host a Tech Week for examiners, with training sessions over a concentrated five-day span.
From Dec. 1-5, speakers from all technical fields will give lectures to the examiners in all of the PTO’s Technology Centers.
Lee said the office still is in need of speakers in the biotech, chemical, communications and design areas.
Those with expertise in these fields are encouraged to volunteer -- for Tech Week or any other time of the year, she said.
Interested individuals can sign up online or email the PTO at Examiner_Technical_Training@uspto.gov.
From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at patents@legalnewsline.com.