Patent office - the online community?!
by
Charlie Bess
I saw this article in the Washington Post, and it really made me scratch my head. It looks like the patent office "will not only post patent applications on the Web and invite comments but also use a community rating system designed to push the most respected comments to the top of the file, for serious consideration by the agency's examiners." They've been posting and allowing individuals to search "published applications" for a while.
There is a backlog of patent applications, but I am wondering if it will speed up the approval process or slow it down? With the "gold star" approach mentioned, it looks like the patent office will be moving to a more Wikipedia like approach allowing others to qualify to influence patent selection based on past influence.
I wonder if that means when you find an application that impinges on some trade secret solution you can try to rally others and stop the patent. That would be a variation of a Denial of Service Attack on IP.
The US government seems to be learning what industry and Internet communities are doing and trying to take it to heart. I hope they're careful not to let the zealots take over though. Maybe we'll soon see legislation go through a process like this ...
