PRESS RELEASE November 17, 1998 #98-21 CONTACT: Richard Maulsby Brigid Quinn 703/305-8341 PTO AND RICE UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP TO GUIDE NEW TECHNOLOGY FROM THE WORKBENCH TO THE MARKETPLACE On November 19, 1998, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and the Fondren Library at Houston's Rice University will open the South Central Intellectual Property Partnership at Rice (SCIPPR). SCIPPR strengthens an existing partnership between the PTO and Rice that has been promoting business growth, competitiveness, and technological innovation in the South Central United States for over 20 years. SCIPPR's is the PTO's third partnership library and its state-of-the-art technology will offer many patent and trademark services previously available only at PTO headquarters. Inventors, patent and trademark practitioners, business people and others interested in intellectual property from the South Central United States can now join their counterparts in the Silicon Valley and the Great Lakes area with access to face-to-face links to patent and trademark examiners by videoconference, complete electronic patent image searching, and other services that help bring an invention from workbench to marketplace. Q. Todd Dickinson, Deputy Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, will be on hand in Houston to give remarks at the opening of the SCIPPR. The opening event will take place on November 19, 1998 at 4:00 p.m. at the Fondren Library at Rice University. A reception and open house in the Library's Kyle Morrow Room will follow from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. -30-