Introduction and Summary of the Developments towards Certification of Patent Information Professionals

Why is professional certification needed? 1)To ensure professional standards are met 2)Recognition and protection of the patent information profession 3)To attract newcomers to the profession

Summary of Historical Developments

October 2002 Idea of certification at EPIDOS meeting May 2009 Start collaboration PDG, CEPIUG and PIUG on certification September 2009 Start development mock examination papers October 2011 Mock exams held in London, Munich, The Hague, Stockholm, and New Brunswick NJ (USA) Evaluation mock exams 2012 A long history…

Developments since the mock exams… 1)Change in format of the examination 2)Professional certification title debated 3)Expansion of certification project team to address several areas

Format of the Examination Papers 1)Search paper ( Rule 8 ): i.opposition, validity or novelty search to be conducted ii.patent infringement risk search to be conducted In both Part i and ii, the candidate will select from a choice of different technical areas to suit his or her technical competence. 2)Analysis paper ( Rule 8 ) : i.Short answer questions on patent law of IP5 relevant to a patent information professional ii.Two technology neutral cases in which the candidate will be asked to categorize provided documents as being of interest or not

Professional title for those who meet the certification criteria: Qualified Patent Information Professional

Certification Project Team Expansion

Summary of Proposed Certification Articles and Rules

Articles will be the constitution for the certification body, which will be named the: International Standards Board for Qualified Patent Information Professionals (ISBQPIP) specifies duties and responsibilities of all involved in accordance with the stated purposes of the ISBQPIP ( Article 3 ) establishes Professional Code of Conduct for QPIPs ( Article 9 ) sets out the organizational structure of the ISBQPIP ( Articles 4, 10 ) Membership ( Articles 5 )

ISBQPIP

ISBQPIP – Article 1 to be registered as a non-profit organization in the Netherlands members of the Supervisory Council and Committees will have several years experience as a patent information professional, patent attorney, patent agent or patent examiner At least one of the five Supervisory Council members must reside in a different continental region than the other members at the time of appointment – seven continental regions as specified in the Articles

Rules Eligibility requirements to sit exam ( Rules 4 ) – 3 years of search related experience and (i) a Bachelor degree or (ii)10 years work experience in a patentable subject matter Conditions for registration as QPIP ( Rule 21 ): 1.Pass the exam with a mark > 50 ( Rule 16 ) OR 2.Gain exemption from the exam by meeting Prior Experience Recognition (PER) requirements ( Rule 18 ) Training syllabus for both the search and analysis paper

Rules QPIP title via exam ( Rule 4 ) 1)a Bachelor degree or 10 years work experience in a patentable subject matter 2)At least 3 years full time with >60% of time search related 3)At least 20 searches per year (averaged over the 3 years): at least 5 patent infringement risk searches at least 5 novelty/validity/ opposition searches QPIP title via PER (Rule 18) 1)same 2)At least 10 years full time (15 years part time) with >60% time search related 3)Averaged over 5 years immediately preceding PER application 4)Evidence of Continued Professional Development activity in the 12 months prior to PER application 5)Compulsory ISBQPIP committee service if randomly selected from roster of registered QPIPs 6)Required to attend or teach a course in all 3 essential parts (law/search/analysis) of the exam during the 3 years after being first registered as a QPIP

Rules Maintenance of registration as QPIP 1)Payment of annual renewal fee ( Rule 22 ) 2)Engage in Continued Professional Development (CPD) on an annual basis ( Rule 23 ) -need to accumulate and keep a record of 10 CPD points per calendar year from at least two different groups of the four CPD groups specified in the Rules and no more than 3 activities can be counted from any one group per year. ( Rule 23.6a )

Group 1 (4 points) includes ( Rule 23.6c ): Presenting at a conference, (co)authoring a book, article or report on patent information, attending a patent conference for two days or more, preparing/ marking QPIP exam Group 2 (3 points) includes ( Rule 23.6d ) : Member of a conference program committee, editorial committee, speaking at a training course, (co)authoring a blog on patent information, attending a one day patent information user group meeting CPD Groups

Group 3 (2 points) includes ( Rule 23.6e ): Meetings/courses lasting half a day relating to patent information or patentable subject matter. Group 4 (1 point) includes ( Rule 23.6f ): Reading publications on patent information, peer review of manuscripts or search reports, attending patent information vendor webinar CPD Groups

Reviewing feedback on the proposed Articles, Rules and course syllabus from patent information user groups and public – Posted on PIUG wiki discussion forum on April Finalising Articles, Rules and course syllabus Registering the ISBQPIP Announcing the window deadline for PER Finalising the certification exams Next steps

To review the proposed Articles and Rules in full, please visit where you can provide your comments, suggestions or questions by 21 July