A proposed framework for the certification of the patent information professional Original Research Article

Gone are the days of exclusive access to esoteric patent information databases or rummaging through a classification box of patent publications in order to identify prior art. Patent information is now widely and freely available to all. Although the availability of patent information will likely facilitate future innovation, the access is resulting in a wide range of skills and competencies among those who search and interpret patent information. The time has come to standardise these skills and to devise a certification scheme so that the art of patent searching and analysis is entrenched as a profession for many years to come. This article reviews the progress towards such a scheme, and explains the current PIUG proposal, a key element of which is a three tiered examination structure.