Patent Site Broadens Access To Review Process

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has launched a scheme designed to broaden public participation in the patent-approval process using social networking techniques.

The Peer-to-Patent pilot, set to run through to the end of 2011, went live on Wednesday with 20 patent applications, including 11 from IBM and three from ARM.

Review process

Each patent will remain available on the site for public comment for 90 days, following which a summary will be sent to the IPO for use in the formal review process.

Unlike in the US, the British public has always been able to comment on patent applications, but Peer-to-Patent is an easier-to-use mechanism, the IPO said.

As on social networks, registered users can follow an application that interests them and invite others to review particular applications.

“Reviewers can join a discussion on the application or simply rate any documents found using the distinctly romanesque method of thumbs up and down,” wrote senior patent examiner Nigel Hanley in a blog post on Wednesday.

The Peer-to-Patent system was originally developed by the US Patents and Trademarks Office in collaboration with the New York Law School and has included pilots in the US and Australia.

Search report

Unlike the US system, the UK version will be making the IPO search report available to the public, according to Hanley.

The IPO said it hopes the initiative will help in identifying prior art, or, in other words, defining whether or not a patent is really new.

“Patent applications granted after using the Peer To Patent website review will be potentially stronger, giving businesses better protection to grow their innovative ideas,” intellectual property minister Baroness Willcox said in a statement on Wednesday. “This will give the IPO access to a wider body of knowledge when deciding whether a patent should be granted.”