Patent Quality Matters

As announced in December 2012, Article One Partners (AOP) will be launching an educational contest series geared towards military veterans, known as the Article One Partners Veterans (AOP-Vets) Program. The program will begin on April 8, 2013 and end on May 17, 2013. At the end of the program, the best-performing participant of the program will receive a $5,000 reward!

“Seasoned by training and  discipline, our veterans will thrive in the knowledge-intensive work environment offered by AOP,” said Cheryl Milone, CEO and Founder of Article One, in a recent press release. “They are… true asset[s] to the strong community we have today…As AOP continues to grow, we’re excited to welcome more veterans into our community.”

The program will consist of three main pillars – an educational curriculum on patent research; a series of career guidance sessions from intellectual property executives; and an exciting Grand Challenge with an opportunity to win rewards for success on the research platform.

Education and Training

AOP will provide free education and training in patent research to veterans who participate. Through a series of weekly webinars, and in combination with online curricula and other educational materials, AOP will help guide veterans to become more experienced researchers who can utilize their existing skills to be successful in the intellectual property industry.

Career Guidance from IP Executives

Many veterans face a challenging job market upon returning to the workforce. To provide advice to those veterans interested in starting a career in a new field, AOP will invite guest speakers to discuss career opportunities for veterans in the intellectual property industry through a series of interactive webinars. Through the advice offered during AOP-Vets, participating veterans can gain valuable knowledge on how to apply their existing skills to a new career in the IP industry.

The guest speakers will include Cheryl Milone, CEO of Article One, who will discuss how veterans are already geared for success on the AOP crowdsourcing platform through their skills earned during their time in service. Stay tuned to the AOP Blog for more announcements on the final list of guest speakers.

The Grand Challenge

A Grand Challenge is recognized as a societal problem that everyone wants to solve. For the AOP-Vets Grand Challenge, participating veterans will have the opportunity to not only learn about prior art research and gain valuable research experience, but they will have the chance to use their skills to compete for sizable rewards! The program will engage veterans in a series of competitive research projects, also known as Studies, which aim to help improve patent quality and offer veterans first-hand research experience. The Studies will be conducted over the course of the program in order to give veterans a chance to apply their new research training through a hands-on approach.

For each Study, a reward of $250 will be awarded to each of the three participants who submit the top references to the research project. Furthermore, AOP will also be awarding $5,000 to the best-performing participant in the program. The best performing participant in AOP-Vets will be chosen at the end of the program in May.

Join the Program

If you are a military veteran with an interest in research, science and technology, you are highly encouraged to participate. Please click here to register and in the ‘referral email or affiliate code’ box, type in “Veteran.”

Please note that the program will officially begin on April 8, 2013 and end on May 17, 2013 – veterans interested in participating should be available during this timeframe. For those interested in reading more about the program, additional information is available.