Director's Blog: the latest from USPTO leadership

USPTO’s Global Intellectual Property Academy Expands its Assistance to U.S. Companies and Training of Foreign Officials

Guest blog by Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs Shira Perlmutter

The Global Intellectual Property Academy (Academy) of the USPTO’s Office of Policy and External Affairs (OPEA) has now posted online its metrics from the third quarter of FY 2013, demonstrating its leadership in promoting awareness of and respect for intellectual property. The Academy continues to provide top-notch educational and technical assistance on a variety of IP issues to audiences in the U.S. and abroad.

This year, the Academy expanded its work for U.S. small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), conducting 27 programs with a total of 1,714 U.S. SMEs. During the third quarter, Academy outreach efforts included a workshop for more than 100 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program grantees organized by the National Cancer Institute, an IP Boot Camp at the Second Annual International Music Products Association meeting, and presentations on intellectual property to small businesses at locations around the country. Webinars for scientists, inventors, and companies throughout the United States were conducted on topics such as patent commercialization and trade secret protection.

During the third quarter the Academy also fulfilled its role in promoting effective and balanced intellectual property rights on a global scale, increasing the number of foreign government officials trained this fiscal year in all aspects of IP protection and enforcement to 5,118, up from 1,937 at the end of the second quarter. In programs held overseas or at our Academy in Alexandria, Va., officials from China, Southeast Asia, India, Russia, Estonia, Georgia, Mexico, and elsewhere across Latin America covered subjects on all aspects of IP protection and enforcement, including online copyright issues, geographical indications, and trademark information technology.

The Academy also hosted a meeting with a regional group of Latin American countries (PROSUR) and the Canadian IP Office to discuss work sharing initiatives, and helped facilitate the annual meeting of the Heads of the IP5, the five largest IP offices in the world, in Cupertino, Calif.

For more information on our activities across the last four quarters, I invite you to see all of our performance metrics, which are available on our Policy and External Affairs dashboard.

Posted at 06:08AM Sep 11, 2013 in ip  |  Comments[1]