United States Patent and Trademark Office Begins Pilot Program to Open Patent Examination Process for Online Public Participation

"Tham, Yeen C." <ytham05@xxxxxxxx> · Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:01:57 -0400

Title: Message

Contact: Nancy Guida, 212.431.2325, nguida@xxxxxxxx 

United 
States Patent 
and Trademark Office Begins Pilot Program to Open Patent Examination Process for 
Online Public Participation

Peer-to-Patent Web Site 
Launched at www.peertopatent.org

June 18, New 
York, NY—Peer-to-Patent, an 
initiative of New 
York Law School’s Institute for Information Law and 
Policy in cooperation with the United States Patent and Trademark Office 
(USPTO), began on Friday of last week. In an Official Gazette Notice published 
on June 6, 2007 (www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/dapp/opla/preognotice/peerreviewpilot.pdf), 
the USPTO announced that this pilot program to test the value of public 
participation in the patent examination process will run for one year. The USPTO 
has committed to provide feedback on the usefulness of public submissions. The 
results of the pilot will be compiled by the USPTO and New York Law School.

CA, GE, HP, IBM, Intel, International 
Characters, Intellectual Ventures, Microsoft, Oracle, Out of the Box Computing, 
Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and Yahoo! have requested to participate in the pilot. As of 
Friday, June 15, five applications (from HP, IBM, Intel, and Red Hat) were made 
available for public review on the Peer-to-Patent Web site at www.peertopatent.org, and the 
public has already begun to review and comment. Descriptions of the applications 
are available at http://dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent/applications.html.

Special 
note: 
Peer-to-Patent Organizers and Steering Committee members will present the 
project and answer questions at the Peer-to-Patent auditorium on 
New York Law School’s 
Democracy Island, Second Life on Monday, June 18 at 12 p.m. 
PST/3 p.m. EST. Attendees can find the event by searching Second Life’s 
directory for Democracy Island, or by following this link: www.tiny.cc/rfqh3.

Patent applicants with computer software patent applications to be published 
during the coming year may apply to join the pilot by completing the form 
available from the USPTO at www.uspto.gov/web/patents/peerpriorartpilot/submission.pdf. 
Applications accepted to the pilot will be advanced out of turn and reviewed at 
no charge within one year, instead of the average four-year waiting 
period. Applicants can also request early publication without payment of an 
early publication fee. 

The Peer-to-Patent Web site enables the 
public to find information to help the USPTO evaluate the patent 
application. The custom-designed Web site facilitates:

  review and 
  discussion of posted patent applications 

sharing of 
  research to locate references to relevant earlier publications 

submission of 
  these prior art references with an explanation of relevance 

annotating and 
  evaluating submitted prior art 

winnowing of top 
  ten prior art references, which, together with commentary, will be forwarded 
  to the USPTO 

patent education 
  to inform public participation 

forwarding of 
  public submissions directly to the USPTO for consideration 

Reviewing patent applications is free and open to all 
via the Peer-to-Patent Web site at www.peertopatent.org.

Peer-to-Patent offers the public the 
opportunity to share the best 10 publications—known in patent law as “prior 
art”—and commentary that will inform the patent examiner about the invention. 
The goal of opening up the examination process for public participation is to 
enable better decision making by the patent examiner and improve patent quality. 
At present, examiners must assess the validity of a patent application without 
public input. By reviewing applications and submitting relevant prior 
art and/or commentary, the public can help get information about publications or 
fruitful avenues for research to the Patent Office that may otherwise not be 
accessible. 

The Peer-to-Patent software and pilot 
program have been developed with the sponsorship of CA, GE, HP, IBM, 
Intellectual Ventures, the MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft, Omidyar Network, and 
Red Hat. Visit www.dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent 
for more information or e-mail reviewer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to become 
a community reviewer.

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