The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has opened the patent examination process for online public participation for the first time. The Peer-to-Patent: Community Patent Review pilot, developed by the New York Law School Institute for Information Law and Policy in cooperation with the USPTO, lets the public submit prior art and commentary relevant to the claims of 250 pending patent applications in Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security (TC2100). This connects an open network of community input to the legal decision-making process.

Peer-to-Patent involves
1. review and discussion of posted patent applications
2. research to locate prior art references
3. uploading prior art references relevant to the claims
4. annotating and evaluating submitted prior art
5. top ten references, along with commentary, forwarded to the USPTO.
The goal of the pilot is to prove that organized public participation can improve the quality of issued patents.

Anyone in the public can participate as a reviewer, a patent application facilitator, and by sharing information about the pilot with others. Inventors can submit a qualified patent application for open review. Public participation is crucial to demonstrating the value of openness and making the case for greater USPTO accountability to the technical community. A successful pilot will also make a case for expanding to other subject matter.
For more information visit http://www.dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent/index.php