On my last day at the PIUG conference, I attended a workshop on a product called “SumoBrain”.   I had heard that it used Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) technology, but that turned out not to be true – not yet, anyway.  That was disappointing, but I look forward to seeing LSA in the future (maybe at next year’s PIUG?)  The creators of SumoBrain, which describes itself as “a new professional patent searching solution from the creators of FreePatentsOnline.com”, explained that LSA is a feature they are still working on.  It will not be released in SumoBrain until it is working at a high level of precision.   The current version of SumoBrain uses only Boolean search technology.  It provides searching in US, European, PCT, and Japanese authorities, as well as INPADOC.  It does not cover as much data as Lexis.com - Lexis.com has United Kingdom patents in addition to those covered by SumoBrain – and it does not offer nearly as many patent authorities as LN’s TotalPatent.  TotalPatent provides nearly 100 patent authorities.   SumoBrain also offers many of the same workflow tools that are offered on Lexis.com and/or TotalPatent:  alerts, portfolios, document commenting, document sharing, and document delivery.   But it does not offer the world-class Matthew Bender patent analytical sources or the vast non-patent prior art sources that are available to LexisNexis customers.  I concluded that SumoBrain shows promise, but it can’t compare to LexisNexis products!!   J     

Just when events were winding down, I enjoyed an unexpected surprise:   I took a tour of the USPTO’s new search facility!   This unplanned, but very welcome, excursion began during a visit to the Trilateral Office’s exhibitor station.   I was happy to see my long-time USPTO friends there (the USPTO is a member of the Trilateral Cooperation along with the European Patent Office and the Japan Patent Office).  They invited me and several other attendees to take a tour of the search facility in Alexandria .   I had seen the old search room 11 years ago.  It was a bit dark, dusty, and crowded.  The new one is bright and clean, with plenty of space.  Entering the facility, we walked through the Inventors Hall of Fame.   Dozens of old bound volumes of the Official Gazette were on display (only a die-hard patent fan can get excited over bound volumes of the Offical Gazette J ).  Our tour guide gave us a demonstration of the WEST (Web Examiner Search Tool) search system and the EAST (Examiner Application Search Tool).  The EAST system is newer and considered to have a superior user interface.  It allows the user to search US, European, and Japanese patents and it offers Derwent World Patent Index (DWPI).  (DWPI is a highly valuable database in the commercial sector.  We were surprised that it was available on the USPTO’s system).  EAST has flexible window display features, allowing the user to see the text of a patent in one window while viewing the drawings in another window.  It also offers a spreadsheet-like display of the cite list, another valuable feature.  I’ve heard a lot of positive comments about EAST; it was great to see it in action!

It’s hard to believe the 20^th anniversary of PIUG is now a fond memory.   It was a great success, with a record 392 registered attendees and a record 19 workshops.  Here is the list of sponsors and exhibitors, including LexisNexis, who made the PIUG 20^th anniversary a stellar event:

Emerald Sponsor
Thomson Reuters

Sapphire Sponsors
Chemical Abstracts Service
LexisNexis
Questel

Amethyst Sponsors
BizInt
TPR
Uppdragshuset AB
Fiz Karlsruhe
Minesoft
Search Technology
McElroy Translation
GenomeQuest
Innography
Patents Online

Exhibitors
Computer Patent Annuities
East Linden
IFI Patent Intelligence
Intellixir
Landon IP
RWS Group
Sapio Systems
SciPat
Trilateral Cooperation (USPTO, JPO, EPO)
WIPO