BME Lecture Series: Stella Mittelbach, LA Public Library

Abstract: The United States Patent and Trademark Office recommends inventors perform a “prior art search” before they apply for a patent to make sure the invention is new and nonobvious. This talk will explore the USPTO databases, PatFT and AppFT, in order to find U.S. patents and patent applications. Attendees will learn to use the Cooperative Patent Classification system to target the most relevant patents for review. Students will also discover how to use Google Patents and the European Patent Office’s Espacenet to supplement their searches.

Bio: Stella Mittelbach is the patent and trademark librarian at Los Angeles Public Library, where she helps inventors, business people and historians navigate intellectual property resources. She earned a master's degree in library and information science at UCLA in 2005. She joined the Science, Technology and Patents Department at Central Library in downtown Los Angeles in 2007, overseeing the intellectual property collection, as well as government documents and a special culinary collection.