peer to patent project

I attended a lecture tonight at UofT called "The answer is open source, but what are the questions?" given by Ira Fuchs (from Princeton) (hmmm how is his last name pronounced). Ira mentioned this new project by the US Patents and Trademarks office called Peer to Patent Project. After admitting that the patent system is a mess, the USPTO has created this project that allows technical people from all over to comment online (on the project's wiki) as to whether a proposed patent should be granted. This would help alleviate some of the pressure put on patent examiners - as the patent system gets more and more clogged up - and help to ensure only worthy inventions receive a patent. It will be interesting to see whether this new project is effective and whether a similar initiative will develop in Canada.

Peer to Patent Project