A just-launched company says it will strengthen the patent system by using a “crowdsourcing” strategy, inviting an online community to search for prior art on patents so weaker patents can be invalidated and true innovations are validated. The company, named Article One Partners, LLC, apparently after the section of the U.S. Constitution that covers copyrights, is offering financial rewards to “Advisors” who submit prior art evidence of invalidity related to high-profile patents. Article One will analyze the prior art and issue opinions based on its findings, which will be sold to interested parties and used to guide stock market trades, according to the company. Advisors earn up to $50,000, with $1,000,000 total being offered during the firm’s launch phase. Advisors who actively build the community can also earn premium compensation in a profit sharing plan, which will distribute about five percent of the company’s net profits to community members. “The United States Patent Office does high quality work, but its resources are limited to fully research the global pool of evidence used to determine patent validity,” said company founder Cheryl Milone. “The community of Article One Partners includes Advisors worldwide who have knowledge of science and technology and can uncover new evidence. This evidence adds a crucial level of review to a patent system in need of reform to improve patent quality.” Noting the valuable rights granted to patent holders to prevent competition for up to 20 years, Scott Locke, partner at New York law firm Kalow & Springut LLP, says the crowdsourcing effort “provides another check on whether a claimed invention was truly worthy of a patent.”

According to its press release, the company’s intent is “to restore the patent system to its original intent of granting exclusive rights for true innovation, while promoting the progress of science and technology through open sharing of invention. To this goal, every patent that can be invalidated should be invalidated.” Pooling efforts to find prior art will “reduce unfair monopolies and overly broad patents,” while at the same time “patent claims for unique innovations are intrinsically strengthened when our Advisors’ comprehensive global search does not uncover prior art,” the firm maintains. Some observers note similarities between Article One and BountyQuest, a short-lived company set up by Tim O’Reilly and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to dig up prior art and reveal patent weaknesses. Interestingly, Milone has filed her own business method patent application claiming Article One’s model is unique.

Go to: IP Frontline, Techdirt, and ARS Technica. To view Article One’s entire patent application, click here.

Posted December 3rd, 2008 under Tech Transfer

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