Open-source programmers want to ensure that their work remains in the public domain. But some fear that private companies will take their good ideas and turn them into proprietary products — and even patent other people’s work.
That latter fear isn’t entirely unreasonable, given the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s increasing tendency to issue patents for just about anything submitted for approval. Now comes a Web site that will help the patent examiners do their jobs.
It’s called PriorArt.org. “Prior Art” is an expression meaning, essentially, earlier work related to an alleged invention that suggests the invention is not entirely new.
Under the currently dysfunctional system, applicants have little incentive to search for and disclose prior art even though they’re supposed to do just that.
PriorArt.org is designed to give open-source programmers and other inventors “an easy and free way to disclose and publish inventions that they think should be in the public domain,” according to the site. This will help prevent the issuance of bad patents, because examiners may check this database before issuing new patents.
It costs a bundle to challenge even a blatantly bad patent. If this site causes companies to hire fewer lawyers and more engineers, it will be a terrific enhancement to the intellectual-property field.