So it was required to accept submissions from the public but not required to coordinate to solicit submissions from the public? Gotta love government thinking.

So it was required to accept submissions from the public but not required to coordinate to solicit submissions from the public? Gotta love government thinking. At least someone stepped up and went beyond the requirement, shows initiative. I'm assuming that guy will get fired any day now. I see now what you mean about the law applying in this way to previous patents, it seems one can directly submit prior art on a patent with the Patent Office as opposed to suing to get the patent invalidated. If I'm reading things correctly. But I still find it interesting that apparently this was the process: patent is screwed up and we should fix it, here's a law to fix but it'll take a year to get things rolling with the public, what about the patents on the table, grant them and we'll patch it up later. Did these people work for Microsoft* in a previous life? * To avoid causing hurt feelings that seems so common these days, please replace said company with whatever company you have misgivings about, serious or otherwise.