Peer to Patent Project Begins June 15 (Groklaw) [LWN.net]

Groklaw has a reminder about the the Peer to Patent project starting next week. "It's historic, in that it's never been tried before, letting the public provide the USPTO examiners with a helping hand. The goal is to find ways to block stupid patents at the applications input level, so they don't get approved, issue, and subsequently hurt people and companies. I think of it as bug spray to kill off stupid patents before they can multiply."

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Peer to Patent Project Begins June 15 (Groklaw)

Posted Jun 8, 2007 22:01 UTC (Fri) by socket (subscriber, #43) [Link]

*sigh*

Isn't that presumably the job of the patent examiners? Sometimes, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself, but other times, doing someone else's job for them is a good way to get more frustrated over time.

Something evidently rewards patent examiners for granting applications, rather than for doing what should be their jobs. *That* needs to be addressed.

If you do someone's job for them, they'll come to expect it, and if *that* status quo is accepted, it legitimizes the idea that the courts are better at examining patents than the patent examiners. I imagine a lawyer saying, "Not only did the patent examiners not see a problem, but these volunteers in all their copious free time didn't [get to it] either, so it should be presumed valid."

Peer to Patent Project Begins June 15 (Groklaw)

Posted Jun 9, 2007 11:24 UTC (Sat) by zotz (guest, #26117) [Link]

I had an idea the other day that I had never seen bandies about before with respect to patents:

http://zotzbro.blogspot.com/2007/06/simple-idea-for-paten...

At least with such a "dual purpose" patent model, not examining the "defensive only" patent applications would not have the same bad effects on society.

Your thoughts? (Greatly appreciated.)

all the best,

drew