Technology: Cure for the Patent Mess?

Everyone agrees that the patent system has become a mess. The US Patent and Trademark office is overwhelmed. In 2005 there was a backlog of 490,000 patents waiting for review. Last Summer the backlog stood at 600,000 patents. In less than 12 months later the number surpassed 700,000.

How can the system be improved? A group at New York Law School’s Institte for Information and Policy think that they have a great idea: invite patents to an Open peer review. They’ve started a web site where people can submit patents that are up for review. Interested parties can read the applications and post links to prior art. During an 18 week period site users can vote on the validity of a patent entry. It’s called the Peer to Patent Process.

The US Patent Office has decided to give the new system a try. They’ve agreed to fast-track applications that can get by the peer process review successfully, by-passing the normal wait of about 40 months. The advantage is that companies can get patents approved much more quickly, but the drawback for applicants is that the process could make it much more difficult to get approval.

Some companies have signed up to give the new process a try. They include an application from IBM related to cryptography and one from Microsoft related to digital rights. Other companies testing the water are HP and Red Hat. GE already has had three patents approved going through this route. With so many large companies like this trying this approach, it is a good sign that this model might be used more frequently by the Patent office in the future.

The pilot project is set to run for either 250 patent applications or for one year, whichever comes first. At the end of that period the success of the project will be reviewed and a determination will be made as to continue with the approach or to possibly tweak the details to further improve the process.

There is still much more that could be done to streamline the whole process. This approach improves on the prior art search part of the application. Alll of the other patent application steps remain the same, but the prior art review is usually the most time consuming.

It’s a great idea. And it’s about time! It’s likely if this approach succeeds that patent systems used in other countries may follow a similar approach.