Online Collaboration Speeds Up the Patent Process
At the moment if you were to submit a patent to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) it would take, on average, 52 months from filing to first action. So what’s the holdup?
Examiners need to search through what is called prior art which includes data, photographs, academic articles, prior published material and every other source before they can approve a request. If they screw up there is a mess that involves voiding the patent, lawsuits and headaches.
That is where the world of online collaboration comes into play at Peer to Patent, a new website that is working closely with the USPTO in the search for prior art.
A manager at the USPTO working closely with Peer to Patent told Technology Review, “The U.S. patent system is based on disclosure, and the earlier we can get our examiners the best prior art in front of them to help make that patentability determination, the better… giving the public an opportunity to participate in that process … is going to further improve our quality.”
The project will dramatically shorten the time it takes examiners to research for prior art. Hopes are that grassroots organizations will be better able to stop frivolous patents dead in their tracks before they are approved.
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chris said
am September 24 2007 @ 10:02 pm
wow, that is a long ass time to get a patent to go through. i guess if that is the only bottleneck, to look for this art before hand that we as the internet could really do a good job in finding it.
Jerad Kaliher said
am September 24 2007 @ 11:23 pm
@chris, I think that online projects have had a good overall effect when it comes to being a workhorse. This is the perfect project for people like you and I to engage in. We are simply finding facts and prior art for the examiners who will make their final decisions.