Best Practice - Web 2.0

Believe it or not, I'm going to give my first Best Web 2.0 Practice award to a branch of the federal government. The U.S. Patent and Trade Office. Anyone who's ever been involved in a patent issue knows what a mess the process is and it hasn't been getting any better. I'm not a big proponent of software patents. I personally think it's ridiculous to award a patent on a process or an application of other technologies. In the end it does nothing but stifle innovation. The patents that have been issued for software over the last 10 to 15 years are entirely too broad and have allowed people with the resources to cover up the USPTO with filings to get away with murder. Add to that the number of patent troll corporations that are willing to snatch up the intellectual property and add it to their portfolio for the purpose of wrenching licensing fees or large settlements out of well intentioned companies and you have a recipe for disaster and apathy on the part of creative people who just want to build a good product and get it to market. The problem at the USPTO has been resources. They just don't have the warm bodies it takes to really investigate prior art or really dig into a complicated filing to see if it has merit. A NY Law School professor posted an idea on blog that grew legs and some pretty serious endorsements really fast. Beth Noveck proposed the idea of using a Wiki to allow people to comment on patent filings and help uncover the research necessary to make good decisions. IBM and Microsoft quickly recognized the benefit of endorsing the idea and jumped on board. According to a recent Fortune magazine article the USPTO put about 250 to 400 filings into a test program and is very close to green lighting a full roll out of the program. What a concept! Let the people who really know about a particular issue help decide if a patent has merit. Kudos to the first Mike's Corner Best Web 2.0 Practice Award, the USPTO. I'm sure their just as pleased as punch and will call a press conference to announce their acceptance. :)