USPTO Announces Launch Of Prior Art Pilot

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

08 June 2007

The United States Patent And Trademark Office (USPTO) this week announced the forthcoming launch of a pilot on the peer-reviewing of prior art with regard to patent applications.

The USPTO explained that:

"Recently a group of academic and business professionals have proposed a collaborative, online process in which members of the public pool together their knowledge and locate porential prior art. This pilot will test whether such collaboration can effectively locate prior art that might not otherwise be located by the office during the typical examination process."

Under the pilot, which is expected to run from June 15, 2007 until June 16, 2008, applicants filing patent applications "in the computer arts" will have the opportunity to take part in the scheme, which will involve a collaborative review process being undertaken by members of the public, via the Peer-to-Patent website created for the pilot.

The Patent Office further explained that:

"The goal of this pilot is to test whether the organized collection and submission of documents together with comments by the public will produce better examination results by presenting prior art known by the public to the examiner early in the prosecution, specifically before the first Office action."

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