US Patent Office Seeks Aid To Spot Bogus Patent Claims

First time accepted submitter startling writes "Members of the public are being asked by the US Patent Office to help weed out bogus patent applications. It wants the public to contribute to a website that will spot applications for patents on technologies that have already been invented. The website, called Ask Patents, will be run by US firm Stack Exchange that has a track record of operating Q&A websites."

Bayesian Spam Filter

[retroworks]

I found a virus on my computer which was taking random terms and filing USPTO claims, debiting $ filing fees from my bank account. Oddly, USPTO granted more patent claims than people clicked on the links selling viagra ten years ago.

Re:First of the many bogus patents by Google

[O422]

The Google patent in question covers a particular method of managing multiple personas. I, for example, could have a persona of "Sarten-X", which I could use for my programming and other online dealings, and "John Smith", which I use for my professional and audio work. When someone interacts with me on a social network, they can pick which profile they're interacting with.

Yeah, multiple usernames. Now that's not obvious at all! Hell, even schizophrenia predates it!

Re:First of the many bogus patents by Google

[bhagwad]

The root eh? If Google didn't exist...oh we'd be living in paradise! :D

Re:You Misunderstand Patents

[Sarten-X]

I don't want a world where we have no intellectual property laws and ideas are stolen wholesale ... however I also don't like what software patents are doing today and I feel like we need to find a better approach to this complicated problem.

Look... I know you're fairly well-known around here, so I hate to question you, but I really don't think you're quite irrational or extreme enough for Slashdot.