By Chris Battiloro (Syracuse College of Law Class of 2019)
https://www.law360.com/massachusetts/articles/1089041/cisco-mit-team-up-to-improve-search-for-prior-art-patents
The patent approval process is flawed. While there are several factors that restrain its effectiveness, the issues surrounding prior art certainly constitute the bulk. The patent process is a co-dependent procedure. A patent applicant should submit detailed invention disclosures that clearly distinguish their work from existing art in the field. Conversely, patent examiners have a duty to conduct thorough patent searches – rejecting any attempt of patenting already existing technology. In order to improve the quality of patents granted, patent applicants and examiners must have ready access to all materials that constitute prior art, new and old.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has teamed up with MIT, Cisco, and Google to develop an open archive of easily accessible patents, patent materials, publications, and other materials crucial in conducting a patentability analysis.
The patent examination process is structured to prevent patents from being issued to already existing or obvious technology. The problem is old technology is not always easy to find. The Prior Art Archive, hosted by MIT’s Media Lab, is designed to be used by patent examiners and members of the general public to promote patent research.
Patentees and examiners will be able to use the archive to determine whether material on websites, product manuals, industry publications or other forms of media could result in the invalidation of an existing patent, or denial of a pending application. Patent applicants will benefit from being able to describe their technology, and how it differs from the existing landscape, in higher detail. Examiners will have an easier time rejecting infringing material, tracking down publications, and establishing a record of differences between patent claims and prior art.
USPTO director Andrei Iancu, who has been focused on improving patent quality in the U.S., stated, “By collecting various non-patent literature in one database, and making it searchable and readily available to the entire industry, the Prior Art Archive will help our examiners, and the public, to identify additional prior art upfront, during the examination process.” Having ready access to such materials will improve the USPTO’s quality of patent application examination and the reliability of patents granted.
Searchable through Google Patents, the archive permits members of the public to upload typically hard to obtain technical materials. Many heavyweights in the tech industry have already submitted their own prior art. Tech giants such as Cisco, AT&T, Amazon, Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Dell, and more have uploaded millions of documents. The archive will become more beneficial as its collection continues to grow. Expect this method of archiving to become more relevant in the patent process within the near future.