[Air-L] Microsoft Social Networking Patent Application

subbies at redheadedstepchild.org subbies at redheadedstepchild.org
Mon Apr 28 17:30:58 PDT 2008


Can we avoid the snark?  I feel like the quality of list discussions 
has really....degraded....lately.

There is a reason that the USPTO takes several *years* to clear a patent.  
Although there are no doubt concerns with the Peer-to-Patent system that 
I would be interested in hearing about (as there are with any system, 
good or bad), the one about "consumers doing work for the patent office" 
misses the boat.  There are a very small number of patent officers, and 
because they are stretched quite thin, they are often assigned to analyze 
patents that are only tangentially related to their areas of expertise.  
Having a system like this allows people who may be much more intimately 
acquainted with a method to simply generate leads for examiners regarding 
prior claims.  

As an added bonus, it appears to add a pleasant and *much* 
needed level of transparency to the process, as anyone who has tried to 
navigate the patent office's official website could tell you.  The 
information has long been freely available, but you wouldn't think so to 
try and find it.  

Personally, at it's worst, I think someone might be able to call this 
system superfluous.  but from the bit I skimmed it, it seems quite useful 
and as though it may solve several problems that have plagued the patent 
office for years. 
-Alexis

+ --------
   redheadedstepchild.org
        ------- +

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008, Peter Timusk wrote:

::Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:59:54 -0400
::From: Peter Timusk <ptimusk at sympatico.ca>
::Reply-To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
::To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
::Subject: Re: [Air-L] Microsoft Social Networking Patent Application
::
::Yes would any one like to discuss this egoverment patent research  
::system? is this going to put patent clerks out of a job and the  
::consumers will now do the work for the patent office?
::
::
::On 28-Apr-08, at 5:06 PM, Michael Zimmer wrote:
::
::> Care to expand on what you find amusing? The Peer-to-Patent project?
::> Or perhaps MSFT's patent application?
::>
::> -mz
::>
::> -----
::> Michael Zimmer, PhD
::> Microsoft Fellow, Information Society Project
::> Yale Law School
::> e: michael.zimmer at yale.edu
::> w: http://michaelzimmer.org
::>
::> On Apr 28, 2008, at 4:12 PM, Ulf-Dietrich Reips wrote:
::>
::>> lol
::>>
::>> At 12:52 Uhr -0700 28.4.2008, info at peertopatent.org wrote:
::>>> Dear Friends,
::>>>
::>>> Microsoft has a patent application posted on the Peer-to-Patent site
::>>> (http://www.peertopatent.org) for Recommending contacts in a social
::>>> network.
::>>> It is posted here
::>>> http://www.peertopatent.org/patent/20080059576/activity.
::>>>
::>>> We are soliciting your help and that of the communities you know in
::>>> finding prior art that will help the Patent Office to examine this
::>>> application and determine if it deserves a twenty-year grant of
::>>> rights
::>>> to prevent all others from making, using, or selling this invention
::>>> (this includes any research and R&D that would touch upon the
::>>> claims of
::>>> the invention, if patented).  Can you let people know about this
::>>> opportunity?  We invite them to submit: 1) prior art, 2) to
::>>> annotate the
::>>> prior art submitted by others, 3) to vote on the relevance of the
::>>> public
::>>> submissions, and 3) to suggest fruitful avenues for research for the
::>>> USPTO when examining this application.
::>>>
::>>> Peer-to-Patent is not just another blog, wiki or website.  It is an
::>>> "extension" of the government institution!   Posted information
::>>> will be
::>>> forwarded directly to the United States Patent and Trademark Office
::>>> and
::>>> be used in the examination process.
::>>>
::>>> Here's a bit more detail about the application and about Peer-to-
::>>> Patent:
::>>>
::>>> Recommending contacts in a social network
::>>> A method and system for recommending potential contacts to a target
::>>> user
::>>> is provided. A recommendation system identifies users who are
::>>> related to
::>>> the target user through no more than a maximum degree of
::>>> separation. The
::>>> recommendation system identifies the users by starting with the
::>>> contacts
::>>> of the target user and identifying users who are contacts of the
::>>> target
::>>> user's contacts, contacts of those contacts, and so on. The
::>>> recommendation system then ranks the identified users, who are
::>>> potential
::>>> contacts for the target user, based on a likelihood that the target
::>>> user
::>>> will want to have a direct relationship with the identified users.
::>>> The
::>>> recommendation system then presents to the target user a ranking of
::>>> the
::>>> users who have not been filtered out.
::>>>
::>>> Peer-to-Patent is an initiative of New York Law School's Institute
::>>> for
::>>> Information Law and Policy in cooperation with the United States
::>>> Patent
::>>> and Trademark Office (USPTO).  The pilot program allows for public
::>>> participation in the patent examination process by inviting the
::>>> public
::>>> to submit annotated prior art relevant to examining computer and
::>>> software-related patent applications.
::>>>
::>>> The Peer-to-Patent Web site enables those who sign up to:
::>>>
::>>> --review and discuss posted patent applications
::>>>
::>>> --share research to locate references to relevant earlier
::>>> publications
::>>>
::>>> --submit these prior art references with an explanation of relevance
::>>>
::>>> --annotate and evaluate submitted prior art
::>>>
::>>> --winnow the top ten prior art references, which, together with
::>>> commentary, will be forwarded directly to the USPTO
::>>>
::>>> Reviewing patent applications is free and open to all via the
::>>> Peer-to-Patent Web site at www.peertopatent.org.  Bloggers are
::>>> invited
::>>> and encouraged to host their own conversations about pending patent
::>>> applications and then submit prior art via the Peer-to-Patent
::>>> website.
::>>> Any assistance y ou can provide by encouraging participation in the
::>>> Peer-to-Patent review process will be helpful.
::>>>
::>>>
::>>> Regards,
::>>>
::>>>
::>>> The Peer-to-Patent Team
::>>>
::>>>
::>>>
::>>>
::>>>
::>>>
::>>>
::>>>
::>>>
::>>> _______________________________________________
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::>>
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