February 2009: U.S. Patent Office Offers Speedier Patent Examination -- Again

The "peer" in the name of the program refers to the same concept as "peer review" of academic journal articles. Like that process, Peer to Patent reviews involves input from peers of the inventors. If a patent application is accepted into the program, the examiner assigned to the application can use an online system to solicit background information from professionals in the same field, such as information about prior art (pre-existing technologies similar to the invention covered by the patent application) and commentary.  In the end, the decision about whether to allow the patent application is still the sole responsibility of the patent examiner. Giving the examiner the ability to solicit outside input, however, is intended to help the examiner do his or her job more efficiently and effectively.

Participation in the program is entirely voluntary on the part of patent applicants.  To encourage applicants to participate in the program, patent applications within the program are examined more quickly than other applications.  If an applicant wants a particular patent application to be part of the "Peer-to-Patent" program, the applicant must submit the application for consideration.  Only a limited number of applications satisfying certain criteria are accepted into the program each year.

Peer-to-Patent is still a pilot program and has only been used to examine a very small number of patent applications.  As a result, the full extent of its advantages and disadvantages remain to be seen.  The potential benefits of speedier patent examination under Peer-to-Patent, however, are worth considering by anyone who seeks to obtain a patent more quickly than the 3-5 years that is common for computer-related technologies.  If you have any questions about Peer-to-Patent or any other aspect of the U.S. patent system, please contact me directly.