|
USPTO to begin peer review pilot program |
|
|
|
Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
|
|
Saturday, 09 June 2007 |
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced that a one-year pilot program (peer to patent) to test how well peer review can work with the patent granting process will
begin next week.
The pilot project is devloped by the New York Law school and is sponsored by CA, HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Red Hat. During the pilot, technical experts will be able to
read selected published patent applications and submit annotated technical
references before the application goes to an examiner.
Participants will have to
register with the New York Law School's Community Patent Review
Project (CPRP) prior to submitting peer reviews. Those participating in the
program will be allowed to review up to 15 applications, a limit that the USPTO
says will ensure broader participation.
The USPTO currently cannot accept commentary related to prior art from
the public without the applicant's approval. therefore, patents undergoing
peer review will be chosen from a pool from applicants who have volunteered to
have their applications screened through the project. Why anyone would agree to volunteer to have their patent application to further scrutiny is beyond my comprehension.
Even though the idea of having your patent application being scrutinized further by experts might not be the most appealing idea, I can see the advantages of having a participatry system. Having a participatory system, the experts would theorectically be better at preventing the granting of patents that has obvious claims or has prior art. As a result, this would result in fewer patents being granted but would result in a stronger patent being granted.
|
