My brain has been wrapped around how to improve the patent process to minimize "bad" patents and solve for the mess that we've gotten ourselves into lately with nuisance patent lawsuits and overall frustration with the patent process (not the least of which is the 5+ year delay in many cases).
And I was struck by a thought: Could RSS and some of the new Web 2.0 technologies hold a key?
Here's the angle: most patent frustration revolves around when people file for (and receive) patents on what many folks think is obvious technology (or, alternately, is already disclosed in the prior art). The problem is proving obviousness/anticipation after the patent issues -- not a cheap proposition and time-consuming. As well intentioned as patent examiners are (and often times they're quite skilled despite criticism), they simply can't know everything.
What if we (the US) changed the rules on patent publication such that they are published after 6 or 9 months rather than today's 18 month wait? And what if we (someone) builds a RSS feed with keyword capabilities as well as a mini-Digg-like service where users can "nominate" a patent for obviousness and prior art to highlight it to a broader community so it can get blown up? Under this scenario one can easily "monitor" patent publications for fields, words, products, capabilities, etc. that map to one's particular area of interest and expertise. Think of it almost like Wikipedia for patents...
And what if we add to this by enabling anyone to put comments in the record of the pending patent pointing to additional prior art, making obviousness arguments, etc.? Of course registration would be required prior to enabling commenting to eliminate spam (and perhaps we'd need to use lawyers/patent agents to do the actual posting if stupid commenting got out of hand), but just think if by the time the patent examiner had a chance to review the patent the global community had an opportunity to present additional information to the patent office? Wouldn't they be in position to make a much better determination of novelty and non-obviousness with the broader comments? The patentee would have the opportunity to respond to all the comments and have that much more confidence that their patent isn't going to get blown up after issuance if they really have something novel.
Hey all you Web 2.0 & RSS companies and venture capitalists out there, I'd love to hear what you think...
Very intriguing idea!
On the positive side, it seems an awesome way to speed the process and uncover new information rapidly.
The key seems to be all in the 2nd step after making the patent publication timeframe shorter (which may or may not be totally necessary - I have no idea??) - that is, accessing the file(s) from which to stream and build the wikipatent.
I would think there might be a way to get that content today and build a site around it. Would the USPTO.gov site license or provide the necessary content? Or do you think this is a more of a service offered by the patent office itself?
How would you envision the relationship that ties the comments / users back into the government patent process?
Good stuff! Keep the great insights coming...
Posted by: Mike Funk | July 06, 2006 at 05:50 PM