USPTO to Offer Continued Training for Patent Examiners and Calling for Expert Volunteers
In February of last year, the White House issued three new executive actions aimed, in part, at strengthening the quality and accessibility of the US 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. The program is named the Patent Examiner Technical Training Program (PETTP).
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. Just this year, more than ninety experts have provided training to examiners on topics ranging from nanotechnology to virtual reality welding to the chemistry of chocolate.
Now the USPTO is calling for experts who are willing to pay a visit the USPTO in Alexandria, Denver and Detroit, or present via Webcast from their own location. They are especially in need of speakers in the biotech, chemical, communications, and design areas.
Click here to learn more about this volunteer opportunity.