USPTO Joins Forces With Open Source Community Over Software Patents

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

12 January 2006

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced recently that it has created a partnership with the open source community to ensure that patent examiners have access to all available prior art relating to software code during the patent examination process.

USPTO representatives met with members of the open source software community in December.

The meeting focused on getting the best prior art references to the examiner during the initial examination process, and was called in order to address concerns that the research conducted by the Patent Office with regard to software patent applications is not always as thorough as it could be.

The group agreed to improve prior art resources available to the USPTO; to develop a system to alert the public when USPTO publishes certain software-related applications so that interested parties can submit related prior art in accordance with relevant rules and law; and, to explore developing additional criteria for measuring the quality of software patents.

“For years now, we have been hearing concerns from the software community about the patent system,” Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Jon Dudas commented, adding:

“It is important that those in the open source community are joining USPTO to provide resources that are key to examining software-related applications.”

A follow-up meeting on the new initiatives will be held at the USPTO headquarters on February 16. The session will be open to the public and devoted to working on details of the three initiatives and the development of additional proposals.

Recommended