The 21st annual Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) conference finished its third, and final, day of technical sessions. Even though the sessions were winding down, the energy level stayed very high among the attendees. It included a roundtable discussion titled “Challenges and Opportunities Facing Patent Information Analysts and Providers in this Economic Downturn” and “Semantic & Boolean Searching: the Best of Both Worlds” from LexisNexis’s own Mike Hudelson!
The roundtable discussion was moderated by Lucy Akers of Bristol-Myers Squibb. The panelists were Orlando Fuentes, Managing Director of Questel Digipat; Ford Khorsandian, President of Technology & Patent Research (TPR) International, Inc.; and Adrienne Shanler of Shanler Information LLC. Each speaker provided a valuable perspective on how the downturn has affected patent information professionals:
- Ford Khorsandian kicked off the discussion by stating that patent information professionals should review priorities and face economic realities. He said that, in a downturn, they need to 1) add value to our organization, 2) keep investing in core competencies and training, 3) communicate, communicate, communicate – be sure to provide valuable and timely information, 4) recognize that your internal customers have new problems and need new solutions – respond to their needs with creativity and innovation, 5) don’t reduce services and training, 6) continue to recognize and reward best workers, and 7) leverage your resources by partnering and collaborating with your customers.
- Orlando Fuentes noted that US patent information professionals have been impacted by the exponential growth of free information on the patent offices’ web sites, customers’ own staff performing research (rather than outsourcing it), and non-US companies directly offering research services. He explained that there are serious problems for business that rely on these changes. Many of the new services are only offering low skill services, such as providing patent file history copies. The lack of English language skills of staff in many non-US companies is still a barrier to fully using their services. The in-house staff who are being asked to take on more research do not have the expertise or the time. He emphasized that patent information professionals are known to be the most knowledgeable resources for research. They must focus on quality, timeliness, and expanding their services.
- Adrienne Shanler is a patent professional who formed her own business after being retired from a corporate position. Adrienne provided a thorough overview of the steps involved in forming an independent research service. She emphasized learning the pros and cons of working independently, consulting a business coach, joining the Association of Independent Information Professionals, and networking. Adrienne’s advice was appreciated by the attendees as being very practical and realistic.
Moving on to “Semantic & Boolean Searching: the Best of Both Worlds”, Mike Hudelson, Director of Intellectual Property Solutions for LexisNexis, presented the new semantic search feature that will soon be released on TotalPatent®. He explained that semantic search is searching with concepts rather than keywords. The underlying semantic analysis involves extracting contextual relations out of the words and phrases in a collection of documents. A major challenge in user acceptance of semantic search has been turning over control to a “black box”. Most semantic features require the user to accept as a matter of trust the idea that the semantic search feature is returning complete results. The LexisNexis semantic search feature will allow the user to submit a search for semantic analysis, receive a “cloud” of search terms, interact with the terms by weighting them or removing them from the search, and then submitting them as a Boolean search. He explained that the goal of the new feature is to increase recall while maintaining the precision of a Boolean search. The LexisNexis semantic search feature will have transparency; it will not send the user into a “black box”. It is not meant to replace the searcher; rather, it will reinforce the idea that technology is best used when it empowers the searcher.
Tomorrow I will attend a workshop on the new PIUG wiki. The new wiki is a great innovation for PIUG members. I’m looking forward to learning more about it!