{"id":94083,"date":"2019-05-13T05:03:10","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T11:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ever-thought-about-applying-for-a-patent-donna-arment-can-help-you-with-that\/"},"modified":"2019-05-13T05:03:10","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T11:03:10","slug":"ever-thought-about-applying-for-a-patent-donna-arment-can-help-you-with-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ever-thought-about-applying-for-a-patent-donna-arment-can-help-you-with-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Ever thought about applying for a patent? Donna Arment can help you with that"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Federal
Federal employees awarded Donna Arment with an exclusive fellowship at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Got an idea for an invention but not sure what to do with it? Donna Arment can help.<\/p>\n

Durango\u2019s patent and trademark resource officer at the public library has been helping local inventors<\/a> for almost a year to get their ideas off the ground and navigate the complicated U.S. patent process. She will continue the work until mid-July, when she plans to leave the Southwest for Arlington, Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C., for an exclusive fellowship with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.<\/p>\n

Federal employees chose Arment for the fellowship out of a pool of employees in 84 patent and trademark resource centers across each of the 50 states, including two centers in Puerto Rico. She didn\u2019t apply for it, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of in shock,\u201d Arment said of the call she received in November 2018 offering her the fellowship. \u201cI had to really just think about it: What would this do? What could I bring back to the community? How could this work?\u201d<\/p>\n

Arment has worked for years as a librarian in Durango, first at Fort Lewis College then, in 2006, at Durango Public Library. She helped business owners with business and marketing plan research for about five years before working with patents and trademarks, Arment said.<\/p>\n

\"Some
Some of the resources available at the Durango Public Library for patent information.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When the Denver U.S. Patent and Trademark Regional Office director came to Durango in fall 2017, the work seemed a perfect fit for Arment, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a stretch because I can see why (U.S. patent and trademark resource officers) come to libraries because it\u2019s what we do already: We share resources with the community and with people, no matter what level or resource it is, whether grants, business searching, now this patent searching \u2013 it\u2019s very similar to what we do.\u201d she said. \u201cI knew this (patent and trademark resource center) would take this to the next level, then not only helping businesses but inventors, incubators, the Maker Space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal government provides resources to patent and trademark resource centers around the country to give people the tools they need to research and file a patent application. The patent and trademark officers often embody many of those resources.<\/p>\n

Arment\u2019s year-long fellowship is designed to better train her in the skills needed to help people successfully file a patent or trademark. She\u2019ll take a patent examination class, for example, where she\u2019ll learn what patent examiners look for in applications. Arment said this knowledge will give her the skills to review patent applications much like those who approve them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing place and an amazing group of people to work with, and to live in Alexandria and to really just kind of be immersed in this for a year,\u201d Arment said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll also work on a yearlong project of her choosing while in Alexandria, but she hasn\u2019t decided what she wants to do. Helping businesses with patents is on the list, as is designing a program to help children file patents and establish a marketing plan for the patent resource center in Durango, Arment said.<\/p>\n

\"Donna
Donna Arment said she hopes her yearlong training at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va., will give her the skills and tools to better help residents file patents around the Four Corners.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Everything seems to be falling into place, Arment said. Her husband agreed to take care of their cats while she\u2019s away, and Durango Public Library Director Sandy Irwin said the library will actually be saving money by sending Arment to Alexandria. The federal government will pay the library for her salary while she\u2019s gone, Irwin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing there are more than 80 U.S. patent and trademark resource centers, and to know that Donna has made such an impression on U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, it\u2019s a testament to Donna\u2019s skills and dedication to all aspects of her job,\u201d Irwin said.<\/p>\n

But Arment said she\u2019ll miss the mountains, trees and casual nature of Durango: \u201cI\u2019ll probably have to dress up for a little bit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so excited to have this opportunity to do this, now that everything is kind of falling in place, then to come back and train the librarians here,\u201d Arment said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping once the word gets out, we\u2019re going to get people from the Four Corners area. We\u2019re not just helping Durango, we\u2019ll be helping the Four Corners.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durango librarian awarded exclusive fellowship in Alexandria, Va.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5843],"tags":[3371,13,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-94083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living","tag-durango-public-library","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94083"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=94083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}