peer patent reviews

["Tom Metro-12" <user=71@nabble.blu.org>]

 For those interested in matters relating to patents, they've finally 
implemented a pilot program where patent applications get reviewed by 
industry peers, rather than leaving prior art discovery to the 
overworked and typically less knowledgeable patent examiners. 

  -Ton 


On page 8 of issue 181: 
http://www.sdtimes.com/download/images/sdtimes181.pdf

   BY ALEX HANDY 

   In mid-June, the Peer to Patent Project finally opened its Web site 
   to submissions. The project, designed by the New York Law Schoolâ??s 
   Institute for Information and Policy with the U.S. Patent and 
   Trademark Office (USPTO), puts pending computer-related patents out 
   in the open so the public can post links to prior art. Other users 
   can then vote on the validity of the prior art during an 18-week 
   comment period, with the most valid entries being passed to the 
   USPTO with the patent. 

   These prescrutinized patents will then be fast-tracked through the 
   USPTO, skipping the estimated 40-month waiting period for standard 
   patent approval. 
   ... 
   Some of the biggest names in the patent business have already 
   submitted their wares to the Peer to Patent Project. IBM has 
   submitted a patent application for cryptography, Microsoft is 
   awaiting results on one for digital rights management, and GE has 
   already pushed three patent applications into the process. 
   [Christopher Wong, a student research fellow at the New York Law 
   School and a project manager on the Peer to Patent site] argued that 
   with support from companies such as these, it will be hard to make a 
   case against the validity of the projectâ??s purpose: GE and IBM are 
   two of the most prolific patenting companies in the world. 

   Wong added that the contentious nature of software patents makes the 
   Peer to Patent Project even more important in the technology world. 
   He hopes that when the project is complete next year, the USPTO will 
   see a permanent place for the effort in its processes. "This is a 
   pilot program for us. The pilot runs for one year or to 250 [patent] 
   applications, whichever comes first. The whole idea is to show that 
   this is valuable," Wong explained. As of mid-August, the project had 
   garnered its first dozen patents for approval. Those patents are on 
   display for review at http://dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent . 
   ... 
   Wong said that the project simply replaces the USPTOâ??s internal 
   prior-art searches. Since the USPTOâ??s searches are performed 
   exclusively against internal records, the Peer to Patent process is 
   significantly more thorough and timely. After the 18-week public 
   review ends, the USPTO then evaluates the user-submitted prior art, 
   in a fashion similar to how it would consider a patent after its own 
   prior art searches had been completed. Wong said that the Peer to 
   Patent Project specifically targets prior art, as the largest 
   bottleneck in the approval process. 

   Wong encouraged developers to submit their patent applications to 
   the USPTO with the goal of having them evaluated on the Peer to 
   Patent Project. The more patents submitted, he said, the easier it 
   will be for the project to prove its worth to the USPTO, and to 
   perhaps become permanent. 


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