Open-source Overhauls Patent System

K-boy writes "The US Patent Office has announced new plans to reform the patent system - and right up there at the front is open-source software. Techworld argues that it is in fact open-source software that has been the driving force behind the reform." From the New York Times article: "At a meeting last month with companies and organizations that support open-source software (software that can be distributed and modified freely), including I.B.M., Red Hat, Novell and some universities, officials of the patent office discussed how to give patent examiners access to better information and other ways to issue higher-quality patents. Two of the initiatives would rely on recently developed Internet technologies. An open patent review program would set up a system on the patent office Web site where visitors could submit search criteria and subscribe to electronic alerts about patent applications in specific areas."

Comments

Surface changes only

[lastchance_000]

From a quick scan of the article, it appears the changes will affect searches for prior art only (which is a good improvement), but will not address the deeper problem of patents being issued for things like business processes. (One-click, anyone?)

i.b.m.?

[Anonymous Coward]

awww IBM's finaly growing up, it got its first three periods.

Quick, patent these while you can!

[kimvette]

Please!

before the overhaul takes place will some do-no-evil company please patent the following:

  - flash advertisements which use sound

  - flash advertisements which take over your browser and shove themselves over the content you're trying to read

  - annoying flashing siezure-inducing animated GIF advertisements

and then sue every advertiser which uses that style ad for patent licensing fees, and commit to not use those style ads on any web site, EVER?

Thanks. This would be an appropriate use for patenting prior art. If you do this you will have my eternal appreciation.

But it's an advance.

[Spy der Mann]

Remember!

If it's not a step backward, it's a step forward!

Later we can worry about elliminating software patents entirely.

Besides, take a look at this:

Another part will allow anyone who visits the USPTO website to search for patent information and receive emails regarding newly published patent applications. The program will also encourage the public to review patent applications and offer feedback to the USPTO regarding prior art.

The final leg of the program is a patent quality index. The index will assign a number to patent applications and patents indicating the quality of the patent. Members of the public can use the indexing system to evaluate the quality of proposed patents, patent holders can use it to identify weaknesses in their own patents, and companies can use the index to evaluate competitive patents relevant to a field they may be working in.

Not only can prior art be searched more effectively, the PEOPLE (this is, us!) can submit their comments about the patents in question. In other words, if an obvious software patent goes to slashdot, we, the slashdotters, can complain about it DIRECTLY!

And that's a good thing :)

Simple solution?

[LightningBolt!]

If there were an official website where patent applications were scrutinized and commented on by the public, I'd bet a lot more patent applications would be thrown out due to prior art. Here on slashdot, every time some patent is mentioned at all, there's some cranky old technology guy who remembers doing the same thing back in '78 on some project at Fubartronics Inc. Further, competing companies would have the incentive to do the research to find solid prior art and comment on it.