USPTO Peer Review Process To Begin Soon

An anonymous reader writes "As we've discussed several times before on Slashdot, the US patent office is looking to employ a Wiki-like process for reviewing patents. It's nowhere near as open as Wikipedia, but there are still numerous comparisons drawn to the well-known project in this Washington Post story. Patent office officials site the huge workload their case officers must deal with in order to handle the modern cycle of product development. Last year some 332,000 applications were handled by only 4,000 employees. 'The tremendous workload has often left examiners with little time to conduct thorough reviews, according to sympathetic critics. Under the pilot project, some companies submitting patent applications will agree to have them reviewed via the Internet. The list of volunteers already contains some of the most prominent names in computing, including Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle, as well as IBM, though other applicants are welcome.'"

Comments

while they are at it...

[eokyere]

... maybe they could start peer reviewing /. titles too

Re:NEWS new hire at USPTO

[Dunbal]

Yoda, "Work for USPTO I do."

      Prove your worthiness you must, or deny your patent I shall...

Typo in Title

[vjmurphy]

"USPTO Peer Review Process To Being Soon"

To being soon what? :) Or is Yoda writing headlines again?