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USPTO to Use Peer to Patent Program

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the just-wish-they'd-started-it-sooner dept.

An anonymous reader writes "DailyTech is reporting that the US Patent and Trademark Office is going to start using the Peer to Patent program. From the article:' The US Patent and Trademark Office has been getting praise for officially launching the Peer to Patent program -- the purpose of Peer to Patent is to find patents that have been issued for already made products or items that don't properly qualify for a patent. Because the USPTO usually does not have the manpower and time to thoroughly check every patent that comes into the office, many are unjustly rubber stamped.' The program will utilize a Wiki, among other tools, to get the job done."

2 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. A step in the right direction. by MartinG · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This will no doubt help matters, but still the burden of this work is being put on the wrong people. It should be on those who want the patent in the first place.

    If an existing patent grant is subsequently overturned for reasons that the applicant could reasonably discovered themselves then they should be penalised. It should be expected that the applicant has searched exhaustively (or at least as much as can be reasonably expected) before applying in the first place. Why should anyone else have to bear that burden?

    --
    -- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz .@adgimnoprstu
  2. Re:Why should this change anything at all? by chrispycreeme · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I understand the concept I think slashdot readers would be one group that would help with this. How many times have people posted all the "prior art" examples for these lawsuit harvest patents on /.? Open source developers that have projects threatened by junk patents etc etc. I think this is a fantastic development.
    my 2 cents, not one red cent more from me.