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Patent Reviews Via Wiki

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the patents-of-the-many dept.

unboring writes "Fortune reports on a pilot program where the patent approval process would be opened to outsiders for review. Reviewers can vote and discuss on different proposals, through say a wiki. Given the many (recent and past) patent approval fiascos, this seems like a good idea. It'll be interesting to see how they would deal with the issues faced by Wikipedia."

2 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Link to patent review project by FleaPlus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Curiously, neither the submission nor the CNN article gave a link to the actual project page for the Peer to Patent Project. That page has more information and a blog giving updates on progress. There's also a Community Patent Proposal Wiki, but it seems to be down.

    Interestingly, the lead sponsors for the project are HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Red Hat. Strange bedfellows, eh?

  2. Re:Obvious problem by 49152 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bullshit.

    Already today the USPTO publishes pending patent applications, usually years before they are either approved or denied.

    You can see for yourself here: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.h tml

    Publication is a very fundamental part of the patenting process, if you do not want your competition to know about your invention then you cannot patent it either. The idea is that if your invention really is novel then you will get protection sooner or later and can go after anyone thats infringing on your patent.

    If your application does not get approved, then you are correct that you will have lost any edge on your competition by way of secrecy. But then again, if your application is rejected then its most likely not very valuable anyway.

    BTW: This is the reason a lot of millitary research or technology deemed important for national security is never patented. Patent applications implies publishing.