Improving the Patent Review Process
Innovation Management has published an in-depth article on how to improve patent quality through crowdsourcing. The article provides a global perspective on how patent backlog has grown in most major markets and suggests that efficiently managed online communities may offer significant advantages over traditional patent application review for both companies and the public. The article suggests that the public would be of most use in the search for prior art.
Submitting an open call for specific prior art search in patent applications allows anyone interested to scan the request. If they have relevant information they can submit it. If not they move on. Because individuals skilled in the art relevant to a patent application request can quickly identify prior art, meaningful input is provided with minimal effort to the individual.
Businesses and patent offices have already achieved results with such systems. Test projects have had moderate success in theU.S.andJapanbut both suffered from lack of participation. If that challenge could be overcome, the authors believe crowdsourcing prior art search could be a win for everyone. With low quality patents are a serious and unnecessary burden on modern economies, there is little to lose and much to gain.
A startup company called CrowdIPR is already offering crowdsourcing services to companies in need of patent review. The site enlists searchers who pick a project they are interested in and post links to relevant patents and pull information from a directory of resources. The most valuable searcher is then rewarded with either cash or gift cards.
Companies in need more personalized attention or help with more difficult searches may benefit from the prior art search services from Idea Connection which, with an extensive global network of experts, specializes in publically disclosed or described obscure citations.
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