As part of the efforts of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) to implement its Strategic Plan, the Office is pleased to announce a pilot to determine the extent to which the organized submission of documents together with comments by the public will provide useful prior art for examiners.
Advances in Internet-based methods of collaboration have produced both technological and business models that have greatly increased productivity in the American economy. 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 potential 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.
A limited number of volunteer applicants who filed or will be filing applications in the computer arts will have the opportunity to consent to the placement of their published applications into this pilot. Collaborative review will be conducted on the peer-to-patent website.
The Office and the Community Patent Review Project are independent entities, and are not agents of each other. Peer-to-Patent is a non-Office website developed by the Community Patent Review Project of the Institute for Information Law and Policy at NY Law School. Peer-to-Patent is responsible for the management of the Internet based review process by the public. The Office does not set the membership or agenda, nor assume authority or control over Peer-to-Patent or the Community Patent Review Project. Neither party is authorized or empowered to act on behalf of the other with regard to any contract, warranty or representation as to any matter, and neither party will be bound by the acts or conduct of the other.
For more information regarding the Office procedures related to this Pilot, see the Text of Official Gazette Notice, Expansion/Extension of Peer Review Pilot (signed 17 July 2008) [PDF] and the Text of Official Gazette Notice (signed 04 June 2007, published in the 26 June 2007 issue) [PDF] .
The effective date for this Pilot is : 15 June 2007.
 Office Publications
Volunteer to Participate Consent Form
Classification Information
Only applications classified in Technology Center 2100 (Computer Architecture Software and Information Security) or Business Methods, Class 705, are eligible for inclusion in this Pilot. . The relevant classes are:
380,
700,
703,
705,
706, 707, 708, 709, 710, 711, 712, 713, 714, 715, 717, 718, 719, and 726.
For more information regarding these classes, please visit the Classification Main Menu webpage.
News Items
Presentations
- AIPLA Spring Meeting May 14, 2008, Houston TX
More Information
Note: links to non-Federal Government Web sites do not imply endorsement of this particular organization or the content on these sites
For further information regarding how to be a volunteer applicant or how to participate in the peer review process, please visit the Peer-to-Patent websites at www.dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent/ and www.peertopatent.org. |
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