Peer-to-patent increases prior art submissions
23 June 2008
Eklavya Gupte, London
The USPTO’s peer-to-patent project has led to a big increase in prior art submissions but has failed to bring in fresh patent applications in its first year, according to a report
The
pilot project
began on June 15 last year and was designed to help US patent examiners to assess applications for software patents by encouraging the public to submit relevant prior art.
Mark Webbink, executive director of the Center for Patent Innovations at the New York Law School, who was also one of the authors of the
report
, said it revealed some pleasing statistics.
“The level of users was very satisfying. The sheer volume of prior art that was being generated showed that people were actively engaging in the pilot. We were very happy to get a good response from people outside of the US like the UK, Canada, Europe and even in Japan. It was good to know that people outside of the US were paying attention to this development,” he said.
The report found that an open network of reviewers can improve the quality of...
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