USPTO to Use Peer to Patent Program

An anonymous reader writes "DailyTech is reporting that the US Patent and Trademark Office is going to start using the Peer to Patent program. From the article:' The US Patent and Trademark Office has been getting praise for officially launching the Peer to Patent program -- the purpose of Peer to Patent is to find patents that have been issued for already made products or items that don't properly qualify for a patent. Because the USPTO usually does not have the manpower and time to thoroughly check every patent that comes into the office, many are unjustly rubber stamped.' The program will utilize a Wiki, among other tools, to get the job done."

I hope

[just_another_sean]

I do hope that someone has patented this wonderful new technology!

(sorry, couldn't resist).

Why don't they use Slashdot?

[Billosaur]

Competition will drive more information into the process. So long as people make valid arguments as rated by their peers, their personal agenda is irrelevant. Having many participants in the process dilutes the effect of any bad apples or unconstructive participants. Within any social reputation system, norms evolve to safeguard the quality of participation and we can expect something similar here.

Sounds like we already have that here on Slashdot; let us review patent applications. I am sure we can fair and unbiased, especially when it comes to software patents.

Slashdot falls silent...

[enjahova]

...as thousands of nerds choke on their breakfast upon realizing that the USPTO finally read their comments on Slashdot.

Re:Why don't they use Slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Absolutely. 99% of software patents would be rejected; the rest would be awarded to Apple. I don't see anything wrong with that!

Moderating patents?

[agent dero]

If they use a moderation system similar to slashdot's, there's no way it can fail!

Finally, a fair, completely unbiased way to moderate things...just like on Wikipedia ;)

Re:Why don't they use Slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey! What about us!

Love,
Google

Re:Slashdot falls silent...

[collectivescott]

Its true, this news has altered the slashdot paradigm. For instance, I saw the word patent in the title of the story, and I was ready to launch into a lengthy criticism of the patent office. However, when I realized that it was about patent reform, I didn't know what to do. So now I can only write that I am confused.

Next on slashdot: Microsoft announces it is releasing source code for independent security audits!

Easy to write

[Lobais]

Python code of a perfect peer to patent program:
def filterPatents (patents):
        return []

Well, maybe we aren't that lucky, but it is always a beginning to get rid of the most stupid patents.

He didn't RTFA because...

[Prof. Pi]

... he didn't want to infringe on the patent I own, called "A mechanism to improve the relevance of electronic bulletin board comments via reading TFA."