__/ [ Richard Rasker ] on Thursday 17 August 2006 10:15 \__
> Op Wed, 16 Aug 2006 16:16:33 +0100, schreef Roy Schestowitz:
>
>> Patent review goes Wiki
>>
>> ,----[ Excerpt ]
>> | The problem: an epidemic of shoddy patents.
>> `----
>>
>>
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/08/21/8383639/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
>
> The current deluge of patent applications has given rise to a positive
> feedback loop, with the negative effect mentioned: too many applications
> -> less time for evaluation -> greatly increased chance of rubbish patents
> being granted -> even more applications.
> Public reviewing and commenting could help mend this situation; I'd expect
> to see the rejection rate shooting up, which, after a while, should deter
> most of today's patent gamblers taking random pot shots in the hopes of
> pulling off an NTP for themselves.
>
> So I think it's an interesting idea, although of course it boils down to
> volunteers doing the bulk of the Patent Office's work. Then again, if this
> works well, why not declare all of the PO obsolete, and grant patents
> somewhat in the way that search engines rank their results? Now that way,
> the intended beneficiaries of the patent system (i.e. society as a whole)
> could take back some power out of the hands of greedy corporations.
Speaking of search engines, patents, and greedy corporations, Google
purchased a company yesterday. Among the motives: possession of patents in
computer vision analysis and interpretation. I am guessing that they want to
incorporate face recognition (and thus automatic labelling) into Picasa.
Microsoft mentioned something similar in the past. Overall, Google Images
could benefit as well (e.g. captions derived from image data automatically).
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