ORONO – The next meeting of the Maine Inventors Forum is Jan. 19 featuring William Basford of Benton.

The meeting will held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Target Technology Center, 20 Godfrey Drive, Orono.

It is free and open to the public.

Basford is a mechanical engineer and registered professional engineer who filed his own patent application and began prosecution of it himself.

He is now represented by a patent attorney.

He will speak on his invention, the saga of his experiences in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and his recommendations on how to avoid the problems he has encountered.

The Maine Inventors Forum is an informal group of inventors, engineers, problem solvers, and other professionals who get together to discuss their ideas, to network with each other, and to learn about legal, financial, technical and related subjects of interest to the inventing community.

The event is co-sponsored by the Maine Patent Program and the Maine Small Business Development Centers.