Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal's Institute of Intellectual Property Studies (IIPS) is organising its second part of its Executive Development Programme from February 10 to 14, 2003. Having successfully completed its 5 day participatory workshop on Understanding Patents Basics, it now offers a "Hands-on-Learning" workshop on Patent - Prior Art Search, to be held at the Institute premises in Vile Parle (W).

The patent document is a techno-legal document containing a wealth of technical and scientific information which are needed while evaluating corporate decisions. However, special skills are required to search these documents in an appropriate way, and obtain the required information. Patent - Prior Art Search is a complex exercise, but unfortunately training facilities in this field are very limited.

IIPS is organizing the workshop to cater to professionals in R & D, regulatory affairs, commercialization, law, business development, export development, entrepreneurs, and students in the technical and scientific streams.

The workshop shall be covering the basics of the patent document- the contents of the document with an in-depth analysis of the same, the information / assistance that the searcher should expect from the document, and the use and significance of the search documents in a search strategy. The participants will be instructed on the different Search tools and techniques available, using both the unpaid and paid databases. In addition to working on examples and problems on the computer over multiple sessions, the participants will also be guided on the analysis and making of search reports.