FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 8, 1997 CONTACT: Richard Maulsby (703) 305-8341 97-18 Lisa-Joy Zgorski (703) 308-7427 SECOND ANNUAL INDEPENDENT INVENTORS CONFERENCE: "Celebrating America's Heroes" More than 300 independent U.S. inventors and small business entrepreneurs will participate in the Second Annual Independent Inventors Conference sponsored in part by the Commerce Department in Chicago October 9-10, as part of a Clinton Administration initiative to encourage innovation that will promote economic growth through job creation in the greater Chicago area. America's innovators seek direction. The conference, which is co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library Patent and Trademark Depository, will give participants an opportunity to get direct answers to questions ranging from how to file a patent application to how new patent legislation will affect them. Both the Commissioner of the Chicago Public Library, Mary Dempsey, and the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Bruce A. Lehman, will open the two-day conference designed to offer encouragement and support for independent inventors and small business entrepreneurs. Senior PTO staff will be among the conference plenary sessions speakers, and a panel of successful inventors and nationally recognized leaders of inventor assistance organizations will tell how they did it. Workshop topics will cover services that are available at both the national and local levels such as PTO's new services for inventors, the current and future fee structure, automation strategies, and local assistance available to inventors from the Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program, Small Business Development Center, and North Pulaski Development Corporation. "This is an outstanding outreach effort to foster invention and innovation that will enhance the quality of life and stimulate the economy through the creation of new jobs in the greater Chicago area and beyond," said Commerce Secretary William M. Daley. "It also gives our customers an opportunity to provide valuable feedback to the PTO so that we may ensure that the U.S. intellectual property systems truly promotes the progress of useful arts now and in the next century," added Lehman. The Conference will be held at the Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State Street, Chicago, IL, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days. ###