New York - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has announced the launch of a year-long online pilot program that will test the value of allowing the public to participate in the patent examination process.

The program was developed jointly by the U.S. Patent Office and Peer-to-Patent, an initiative of New York Law School's Institute for Information Law and Policy.

The Patent Office said it will provide feedback on the usefulness of public submissions, which might consist of references to prior art, evaluations of submitted prior art, and discussion of posted patent applications.

Companies including HP, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, Sun and Yahoo have requested to participate in the pilot, and five applications from HP, IBM, Intel and Red Hat have already been opened up for public comment at PeerToPatent.org.

Patent applicants with computer software patent applications to be published during the coming year are also invited to apply to join the pilot; if accepted, these applications will be reviewed at no charge within one year, instead of the average four-year waiting period.

Related Links:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/dapp/opla/preognotice/peerreviewpilot.pdf

http://dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent/applications.html

http://www.peertopatent.org