Last year I reported that patrons could access the USPTO web site from any of our public PCs. Although this is still the case, the number of PCs available to the general public is now limited to four at LSM, and non-Rutgers affiliates must first register to use the equipment. Rutgers affiliates sign on using their Rutgers NETID. PC Reservation/time management software is now installed at all the Rutgers University libraries, and shared throughout the New Brunswick/Piscataway campuses. Patrons can sign up at any library circulation desk by showing a valid photo ID, and they will be given a card good for one year, with two hours of PC use per day. The CASSIS patent workstation has its own sign on, and use is limited only if others are waiting for the PC. However, patrons do not have general access to the internet from this workstation.

The Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) at Rutgers University held a very successful Faculty Pitch Forum/Venture Fair in November 2009. Academic entrepreneurs from Rutgers University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Princeton University, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey each gave a two minute pitch of their technology or start-up company, looking for seed money from Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors.

Connie Wu was busy as usual in her scholarly endeavors this past year. She authored with others a refereed article titled “Celebrating Diversity, Welcoming the World: Developing a Chinese Webpage at Rutgers University Libraries”. This was published in the CALA Occasional Paper Series, a peer reviewed journal in June, 2009 and is available online at
http://www.cala-b.org/files/ops/OPSJune2009No5.pdf. Connie also gave three invited talks in China this past year. Titles were: “Overseas Patenting Activities,” at the Guozhuan Intellectual Property, a sub-division of the State Intellectual Property Office of China, Beijing, China in June, 2009; “Introduction to Patent Cycle and Licensing’ at the Guozhuan Intellectual Property in November 2, 2009; and “IP Management in Enterprises’ Innovation Cycle and Its Supporting Services” at Innovation and IP Service System Construction, the 5th International Conference on Enterprise Intellectual Property Strategy on October 29, 2009. Connie also published her lecture notes from this last talk. =See her speaker photo at http://www.eastlinden.com/EIPS/dis.htm. To support her travel to the lectures, Connie obtained travel support funding from the State Intellectual Property Office of China in June 2009 and from Beijing Foreign Expert Bureau in October 2009.

Submitted 3/11/2010
Ellen Calhoun