The Oklahoma State University Library has been a Patent and Trademark Depository Library since 1956. We are housed in the main University Library and are part of the Government Documents Department, a regional depository for federal government documents.

Researchers/inventors make appointments with us to work one-on-one, and we have many contacts by phone. We had close to 1,400 contacts for service, including phone and email. Our website includes most of our service information and links to information for inventors at USPTO: http://www.library.okstate.edu/patents/. The How to Conduct a Preliminary U.S. Patent Search: A Step by Step Strategy and From Concept to Protection videos at USPTO are great resources.

It was a quieter year after celebrating our 50th anniversary as a Patent Depository Library in 2008, which included a program given by the USPTO PTDL Program staff on September 13-14. The state-funded Inventor’s Assistance Service has merged with the New Product Development Center in the College of Engineering on our campus, so I have been working closely with them regarding preliminary patent research. We looked into a possible subscription for the campus to Thomson Innovation, mostly for market research, but decided not to pursue this at this time. We continue to provide a seminar on trademarks at the basic training workshops given by the Food and Agricultural Products Center and have given preliminary search clinics in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. An Entrepreneurship Center opened in the College of Business, and we continue to work with the Inventor’s Congress (club) in the state. I am reaching out to our science and general reference librarians regarding patents and am giving a related presentation at the Oklahoma Library Association’s conference this spring.

The Oklahoma Inventors Database, http://okinventors.library.okstate.edu/, an index of United States patents issued to individuals residing in Indian and Oklahoma territory 1880-1907 is featured on the Library’s webste. An Oklahoma Inventors Facts section is included (first Oklahoma patents, patents issued to women, etc.). We have not yet decided if we will be expanding this index.

I assisted several faculty in the sciences last year, encouraging them to use patents in addition to their traditional literature sources for research. We also participate in our Research Week on campus to highlight our services.

I appreciate the opportunity to continue to be able to serve as the PTDL newsletter editor. A big thank you to Esther Crawford who is now hosting it on the PTDLA website!

Suzanne L. Reinman