Patents

Patent Offices & Organizations

Selected Patent Offices

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov/)
European Patent Office (http://www.epo.org/)
Japanese Patent Office (http://www.jpo.go.jp/)
UK Patent Office (http://www.ipo.gov.uk/)
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (http://www.wipo.org/)
Directory of Intellectual Property Offices (from WIPO) (http://www.wipo.int/directory/en/urls.jsp)

Selected Organizations

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) (http://www.apec.org/): Formed in 1989 to promote open trade and practical economic cooperation amongst its 18 member economies.
AUTM: Association of University Technology Managers (http://www.autm.net/): A nonprofit association with membership of more than 3,200 technology managers and business executives who manage intellectual property, one of the most active growth sectors of the U.S. economy.
The Patent and Trade Mark Group (PATMG) (http://www.patmg.org.uk/): PATMG is a Special Interest Group of the Institute of Information Scientists, with members drawn from industry, patent agencies, freelance searching firms, database producers and hosts, academic institutions, patent offices and libraries. The group is based in the United Kingdom, but membership is open to any interested individuals from anywhere in the world.
Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) (http://www.piug.org/): PIUG was established in 1988. The objective of the group is to create a forum to discuss issues and concerns relevant to the patent searchers’ community. Also, PIUG promotes the importance of intellectual property, especially patent publications, and most specifically, the computerized patent databases. Since 1988, PIUG has worked with intellectual property database producers and vendors to maintain and to improve the quality of their product from the customer, or user, perspective.
PIUG wiki and its principal Discussion Forum (PIUG-DF) is for matters of general interest to the patent information users community.