Some sites to search non-patent prior art:
CiteSeer
IBM Research
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Scirus
Free Databases for Great Prior Art Searches
10/03/2006 By Leave a Comment
Web 2.0 + Patents = Patents 2.0? The Peer to Patent Project
05/17/2006 By Leave a Comment
Web 2.0 + Patents = Patents 2.0? The Peer to Patent Project aims to design and pilot an online system for peer review of patents. Established in conjunction with the USPTO, and sponsored by IBM, this program will encourage communities to review pending patent applications and to provide feedback to the patent office on existing prior art that may not have been discovered by the applicant or examiner.
“By using social software, such as social reputation, collaborative filtering and information visualization tools, we can apply the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ – or, more accurately the wisdom of the experts – to complex social and scientific problems. This could make it easier to protect the inventor’s investment while safeguarding the marketplace of ideas.”
Links: The Peer to Patent Project, Project Wiki, Project Blog.
Patent Granted for Emergency Medicine Simulation Program
03/28/2006 By Leave a Comment
U.S. Patent No. 7,011,528 was recently issued to the inventors of the widely used Medical Emergency Response Simulator (MERS) computer program. The patent was written and prosecuted by Elliot Furman. MERS is used by Emergency Medical Service (EMS) workers for primary, refresher and recertification training. The product evaluates the worker’s performance in compliance with Department of Transportation (DOT) standards.
Links: U.S. Patent No. 7,011,528 “Method and system for generating a skill sheet”, MERS.
Sharing Linux patents
11/30/2005 By Leave a Comment
In a bid to stimulate the market for the Linux operating system, IBM, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, and Sony have joined forces to support the Open Invention Network (OIN). OIN will acquire Linux related patents. The patents will be available on a royalty-free basis to any company, institution, or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux operating system or certain Linux related applications.
Links: OIN Press Release, Reuters story, Open Source Development Lab (OSDL).
Patent commons and open source licensing news
09/08/2005 By Leave a Comment
RSS Feed of Software Patents
03/03/2005 By Leave a Comment
Code Patents is offering an RSS newsfeed of software related patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patents are evaluated by a human before being added to the feed so as to eliminate non-software type patents.
European Software Patent Decision Delayed
02/11/2005 By Leave a Comment
Luxembourg has taken the issue of software patents off of the agenda of next week’s meeting of the European Parliament.
European Software Patent Showdown
02/10/2005 By Leave a Comment
Sparks will be flying next week in Brussels as Europe makes a decision on whether to formalize the granting of computer-implemented inventions such as software patents. Software patents are controversial, and opposed by many (1, 2, 3) on the grounds that they stifle innovation and benefit large companies. Nevertheless, it is probably inevitable that Europe (UK Patent Office FAQ) follow the US in their software patent policy.
