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[alittlebitofpatents]

I attended AIPLA's annual patent prosecution training course for new lawyers last month.  I thought I'd share my experience with anyone who may be interested in attending future editions of the program.

Location
The 2011 edition of the AIPLA boot camp was held in the Old Town Hilton in Alexandria, Virginia.  You can check it out here: http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/DCAOTHF-Hilton-Alexandria-Old-Town-Virginia/index.do.  In my opinion, this was an excellent choice for a number of reasons, including the following:

• The Old Town Hilton is literally across the street from the King Street Metro stop.  As an out-of-towner, this was extremely convenient for me.  I flew into Washington National Airport, took the Metro from the airport's Metro stop, and was at the hotel within minutes.  Obviously, this was equally convenient for me when I left town.  As you might expect, this proximity to the Metro is great for attendees like me who also wanted to do the tourist thing in D.C. after the course wrapped up.  Although the weather did not cooperate while I was there (Hurricane Irene rolled through town), the Metro has stops at many points of interest like the Smithsonian and Pentagon.  Here's a link to the the Metro's website: http://www.wmata.com/rail/station_detail.cfm?station_id=48.
• The Old Town Hilton is a few blocks from the PTO.  I was able to walk to and from the PTO multiple times during my stay in Alexandria.  As a patent geek, this was actually pretty exciting for me.  I even got to visit the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which is located inside the PTO.  Check it out here: http://www.invent.org/about_invent_now/4_3_1_ptomuseum.asp.
• Old Town is cool.  As I walked up, down, and around the King Street area, I found a great mix of restaurants, shops, and interesting architecture.  Although I did not personally partake in the festivities, I was led to believe that the area nightlife is pretty good.  Check it out here: http://visitalexandriava.com/attractions-activites/neighborhoods/old-town/?gclid=CJ_Uj5-3nqsCFepgTAodzipHkg.
  

See below for a discussion of the course itself.

[alittlebitofpatents]

Course
The 2011 edition of the course was two days long.  The first day and a half were spent delivering traditional lectures on a slew of topics.  Each segment was taught by a different presenter.  All of the presenters were good.  However, to get the full value of the course, I think attendees probably want some background in IP.  The course covers material very quickly.  I did not conduct a scientific study, but it seemed to me that an attendee with a year or more of full time IP experience would have been on the upper end of the experience curve.  An attendee who was either a student or an experienced engineer looking to get into IP would have been on the lower end of the experience curve.  Despite that, I think all attendees were able to take some valuable lessons from the course.  Another thing worth noting is that many of the attendees were not from the D.C. area.  I have no idea what percentage, but I would guess about half of the attendees (maybe less) traveled to the course from places far enough away that they also stayed in the hotel.

For me, the absolute strength of this course was the claim drafting workshop at the end.  My workshop was led by Glenn Massina.  Glenn provided us with a methodology for organizing our thoughts and drafting claims.  Once we went through an example or two as a group, he turned us loose.  As individuals, we attempted to draft claims for a sample invention.  Then, we critiqued those claims as a group (authors remained anonymous).  This feedback was invaluable to me.  We also had two experienced examiners sit in on the workshop. They were very vocal and contributed wherever they could.  I learned a lot in those four hours and became much more comfortable with my claim drafting as a result.  I highly recommend Glenn's breakout group to others in the future.

The course materials are also very good.  In addition to the PowerPoint slides used during each presentation, each segment of the course also included a paper written by the speaker.  This will undoubtedly be valuable reference material for me in the future.

Before this course, I had never met an examiner.  During the course, I actually met and had extended conversations with two.  I listened to a number of others speak during various segments.  This gave me some real insight into what their jobs are like, what challenges they face, what they think about attorneys, etc.  It really helped me get a more complete picture of the patent process.

As stated above, the course was two days long.  I think previous iterations may have been three.  If I were to redesign the course, I think I would still make it two days long.  However, I would expand the claim drafting workshop to a full day and condense the other segments to one day.  I would also use the mornings for the lecture type segments and the afternoons for the claim drafting segments.  This would allow attendees to experiment with claim drafting a little more during the course.  As it was, I felt a little rushed during my workshop.

Here's a link to the brochure for the 2011 course I attended: http://www.aipla.org/events/calendar/show_seminar/Documents/2011pppBootCamp_Brochure.pdf.

My overall impression:
With a price of admission between $245 and $625, I think this has to be one of the best CLE values I've seen for any area of law.  My flight actually cost more than the course.  Ignoring that obvious perk, I thought this was a very valuable course and I would not hesitate to recommend it to others.  If nothing else, it is an excuse to visit the PTO.

Comparison to other similar courses:
I have no experience with other similar courses, but I would be very interested in hearing the experiences of those who have.  Here's a couple other options:

• PLI's Fundamentals of Patent Prosecution:
  http://www.pli.edu/Content.aspx?dsNav=N:4294921992-164&ID=142683
  
• Slusky's Invention Analysis and Claiming Seminar: http://www.sluskyseminars.com/
  

[swarley]

Very cool to hear about the AIPLA training course.  It sounds like it was very informative and helpful.  I attended the PLI 3 day patent prosecution course in San Francisco in July.  It sounds like the AIPLA and PLI courses are fairly similar.  For the PLI course, each day started with lectures in the morning followed by small group clinical practice sessions in the afternoon.  Day 1 was devoted to patent drafting, with a claim drafting exercise in the afternoon; Day 2 was devoted to prosecution and interaction with the PTO, with a response to OA exercise in the afternoon; Day 3 was all about patent litigation, with a claim chart exercise in the afternoon.

I had no experience going into the workshop, and I found it very helpful.  Attendees ranged from my level (no exp) to agents/attorneys with 3-4 years of experience.  The PLI course is a lot more expensive (~$1800), and the materials were great.  We received a book with articles and powerpoints written by the lecturers.  The PLI course takes place in both NY and SF, and the lecturers and materials are different.  The book contains the written materials for both NY and SF.  Overall, I think the PLI course was well worth it.  I'm still looking to break into prosecution full-time, but I'm glad to have a basic foundation to start from.  Hope this helps!