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Peer to Patent Project Extended and Expanded - Mark Webbink Exec. Dir. of New Center

By Pamela Jones et al.

I'm very happy to tell you that it's just been announced that the Peer-to-Patent project, which is a cooperative project between New York Law School and the USPTO, has been extended after the first year's trial. It's also been expanded to include business methods patents! Yum. I can't wait to see you try to invalidate some of those.

And better still, Mark Webbink has been named Executive Director of a new Center for Patent Innovations:

"I'm pleased to announce the new Center, which will lead the way in reforming the international patent system," said Mark Webbink, Executive Director of the new Center. "CPI will become a pioneer in the patent field, helping to create an environment of participation with patent examiners, scientists, and knowledgeable experts, thereby improving the understanding and effectiveness of patent systems. Establishing the Center for Patent Innovations was a natural progression for the Peer-to-Patent project."

By the way, there are some new applications up for review, I see. So if you know anything about booting utilizing email, client-initiated authentication, internet memory access, disambiguation in dynamic binary translation, creation of hanging protocols using graffiti-enabled devices, version control for application message models, or matching a slideshow to an audio track, this is your moment.

This is the first time the public has been involved in a project that actually can directly impact decisions by a US government agency. The press release says that the Law School has now launched a project to develop software specifically for the public to use to help improve the patent system.

You remember Mark Webbink, I'm sure. He was, for most of Groklaw's life, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Red Hat. He's a great guy, and super competent, so this is wonderful news. Perhaps you remember he let me publish an article of his on Groklaw about understanding open source software way back in December of 2003.

What does this announcement mean to me? That all our efforts to understand patent law and how to effectively search for prior art have been for a practical purpose, so dry as a bone as the subject is, let's keep on trying. And it means the USPTO recognizes that they do need help from the FOSS community to get prior art to their examiners before damage is done. That was the stated purpose of the Peer-to-Patent project, after all.

Full post as published by Groklaw on July 16, 2008 (boomark / email).