It looks like the US Patent Office will begin to post patent applications and allow for a Wiki/Digg-style system for sorting out comments/objections in a pilot program. This means that a reviewed sort of system could help the patent office sort out the signal from the noise. We’ll see if any of the gaming that happens in some social networks makes its way over there, but you gotta admit, it’s a pretty nifty idea. Microsoft and HP are already planning to take part in the first phase.
With people reviewing these and presumably having an input over their grant or denial, I wonder if patent legalese will become more readable to the average educated citizen? That would be refreshing, as the language used on some patents is really ridiculous. I know that it has evolved over many years within the ranks of patent attorneys, but must it be so difficult?   Will it get better, so that reviewers can actually talk about the patents, or more cryptic, to exclude them from constructive commentary?
Most social comment sites I’ve seen, save, perhaps Wikipedia, are brief, casual, and rather unrefined in their responses. With patent law and its hyper-structured format, this could be an interesting juxtaposition of language. I can see it now….
“A ball cap comprising a plurality of gores forming a body, a sweat band having an elastic sweat portion, and an elastic gore that is stretchable to provide a ball cap that is stretchable to assume a variety of stretched conditions to accommodate a variety of head sizes, comprising a stiffener assembly that continuously supports the elastic gore in all stretched conditions, said stiffener assembly comprising a main body portion sized to underlie the elastic gore in its unstretched condition, a transverse channel housing the sweat band elastic portion, and a pair of folded side wings attached to the side edges of the elastic gore which unfold as the ball cap stretches to its stretched conditions to continuously support the elastic gore and the elastic sweat band portion.”
comment:Â “Is that the part that goes on your head?”
comment: “I don’t like pluralities, those are for girls.”
comment: “I have an Iron Maiden Hat for sale on Ebay [link removed]”
comment: “Iron Maiden rocks”
I’m not sure that this approach will add value to the patent process, but it may be interesting to watch.
If the level of discourse is on par with what’s found at Groklaw, then there could be a good deal of value to it.
Our patent system continues to struggle… What used to be a way for small and up-and-coming companies to protect their ideas is now a way for large co’s to block companies from starting related businesses. Just the fact that there is a term “blocking patents” is ridiculuous.