Site Of The Day: WikiPatents

Until now, there has been no web site encouraging large-scale, organized public comment to clarify the true merits and value of U.S. patents. While the business idea driving your website may not be able to be patented, many are, which is why community patent review is so appealing to those of us whose success or failure is directly tied to the approval of patented technology.

WikiPatents.com, which officially launched today, addresses these problems and their goal is to strengthen the patent system by clarifying whether a patent really protects a new idea and how much that idea is worth. The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) is very effective at reviewing patents given its limited time and resources. WikiPatents provides patent examiners at the Patent Office and the patent community another powerful resource that will add reliability, clarity, and efficiency to the patent process.

WikiPatents is a free-access web site and database containing millions of patents that allows the interested public to discuss, rate, and vote on published patents and, soon, pending patent applications. Most notably, users can add prior art references (publications that closely relate to and predate the patented technology), as well as comment and vote on the relevancy of prior art. Users can also comment and vote on patent value, licensing, technical, and other issues for each patent.