Two groups I’ve never hear of, the Confederacy of European Patent Information User Groups (CEPIUG) and the Patent Documentation Group (PDG) have apparently reached agreement on the main features of a new professional qualification for patent information specialists. The aim is to provide professional certification for search professionals.
The proposed qualification is to be called the “Certified Patent Information Analyst” (CPIA).
We view this as a positive development. Whereas patent attorneys have to do a training period and pass exams, There are a number of self-styled search experts with no formal scientific or legal qualifications. Some of whom have information skills like degrees in librarian science, and some have no skills at all. The ways things are going, I’d suggest calling searchers “googlers”.
The main goal of the two organisations will be to put a certification process in place that will create the title “Certified Patent Information Analyst” (CPIA).
Apparently a CPIA will be “a specialist in the retrieval and the analysis of scientific, technical, business, and legal information that is relevant for establishing the knowledge and legal status in the field of patents, according to main legislation worldwide.”
See: http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2009/20091123.html
