Working Groups

The majority of the PDG activities is taking place in the Working Groups, Expert Forums and Task Forces. Each WG, EF and TF has one or more (co-)chairpersons, selected from the WG members, who is/are responsible for its smooth operation and who presents an annual report of progress and future plans at the Members' Conference.

The task of monitoring, testing or comparing patent information resources is carried out within the WGs, EFs and TFs of the PDG in such a way that there is duplication of effort is avoided as much as possible but where possible, there is cooperation between different groups.

Companies that send their experts to the working group, expert forum or task force meetings consider their time and money well spent. Members share and exchange best practices and their experiences concerning databases, hosts, vendors and producers. Furthermore, they make qualified and considered proposals to vendors and patent offices for improvements, new services and products. 

PDG - Partnering in Patent Information

The PDG Working Groups may have multiple Task Forces. The Board can also set up Task Forces for over-arching topics. Task Forces focus on a specific topic and may be of temporary nature. 

The Liaisons are persons who represent the PDG in external organisations and are linked to the Working Group to which their activities are most closely related.