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'Patentbook' sums up first year's activity

Peer-to-patent, the experimental networking website for open discourse on innovation, has reported the major findings of its first year in operation. The site reveals that information from its peer users has had a demonstrable effect on official USPTO processes, pointing the way for further collaboration with schooled members of the public.

The First Anniversary Report states: 'According to the results of our initial pilot … allowing informed citizens to collaborate in the examination of pending patent applications may help to improve the overall quality of patents. The burden will then no longer be on the patent examiner or the inventor alone to identify whether or not a patent application is, in fact, novel and non-obvious. Instead, numerous experts working in teams can collectively utilise their knowledge to help address that question.'

In the period from June 2007 to June this year, 2000 peer reviewers flocked to the site to express their opinions on pending patents. Out of the first 23 USPTO actions carried out during the pilot phase, information submitted by peer-to-patent users directly influenced nine rejections. An impressive 92% of patent examiners who worked with the site have said that they would be happy to examine more patents that had received its input.

Peer-to-patent was launched by the New York Law School's information institute, in association with the USPTO and a range of IT majors, including IBM and Microsoft. Speaking for New York Law School, Professor Beth Noveck said: 'As the first example of harnessing public knowledge to improve a government process, the first year of Peer-to-Patent was an unquestioned success. While the impact of this project on patent quality will take longer to assess, the early indications are certainly promising.'

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