4 ms·
Please critique my idea: Prior Art
I'm tired of ridiculous patents. I propose a site called PriorArt (or something similar) in which visitors are encouraged to submit every idea that they can think of so that those ideas are never patentable. This could be done as a forum, or a simple database. I'd love to get the community's thoughts on the effectiveness / legality of this concept, as I'm no patent lawyer. And, of course, feel free to use my idea. :)
- run4yourlives 18y agoI'm pretty sure you have to actually build/use the idea in order to claim prior art.
- echair 18y agoAn idea has to be novel to be patentable. If someone else has already published the idea, it's not novel. It doesn't matter whether they built one. Incidentally, prior art isn't something someone "claims." It's something a patent has to avoid.
- run4yourlives 18y agoWhat I meant was, if I have my 'widget improving idea' written on the website, and Joe Smith applies for a patent for his working 'widget improving device', I'm pretty sure most courts wouldn't listen to my "prior art" claim.
- grag 18y agoI doubt that making an idea public online will make it unpatentable, but regardless, an idea sharing and discussion community would be cool. There is an idea sharing subreddit that's fairly popular: http://www.reddit.com/r/idea/ http://www.reddit.com/r/idea/
- tectonic 18y agoThanks for telling me about this.
- echair 18y agoI doubt that making an idea public online will make it unpatentable Actually it will. To avoid repetition: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=246005 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=246005
- gojomo 18y agoSee also http://www.halfbakery.com http://www.halfbakery.com and (if it ever comes back from 'redesign') http://www.shouldexist.org/ http://www.shouldexist.org/ .
- nailer 18y agoIt means the concept is no longer 'novel' (USPTO) or has an 'innovative step' (IP Australia).
- jerseygirl 18y agoOne person's opinion is subjective, and the degree of ridiculousness as measured by one person will not be the de facto verdict of everyone. Prior art, as defined by the USPTO, is claimed by previously published patent applications and letters patent, both here and abroad, as well as articles submitted in scholarly journals. Thus far it has not been established by any PTO Examiner I've seen that a blog/ social network/ forum/ static site is of the same measurable quality as a scholarly publication. In the absence of this, all PriorArt (as you propose) would do is provide a submitter's unprotected intellectual property on a domain for everyone else to see and pillage. It is reasonable to assume that trollers reading the forum/ blog could see a good idea and (if there is indeed no prior art existing for it after conducting a search) patent it for themselves... thereby restricting the orignal inventor from holding license to his/ her own ideas!
- laurapie29 18y agoEven if it lacks legal strength, the site could provide a strong message against frivolous technology patents.
- gojomo 18y agoThat 'strong message' and $4 will buy you a Starbuck's.
- davidw 18y agoI think this has been done before. For example: http://w2.eff.org/patent/ http://w2.eff.org/patent/ ... fairly similar.