About Time: Stemming the Tide on Ridiculous Sofware Patents
TaranRampersad via flickr (Creative Commons license)
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is doing a one year pilot project reforming the way patents are applied for. Beth Novak, founder of Peer-to-Patent program, provides an overview to IEEE Spectrum.
Qualcomm v. Broadcom. Amazon v. IBM. Apple v. seemingly everyone. The number of high-profile patent lawsuits in this country has reached a staggering level. Hoping to curtail the orgy of tech-industry litigation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is experimenting with reforming the way patents are applied for and processed. Launching on 18 June 2007 was an Internet-based peer-review program whereby anyone (yes, even you) can help to evaluate a number of software patent applications voluntarily submitted for public evaluation.
[via Zonk on Slashdot]
Tags: patents | peer+review | software | software
