A
href="http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=33d934c165e69e4b507504c2b&id=8771dc3ae5&e=77c352ede8#mctoc1">report
from the Peer
to Patent initiative shows
that the project is having salutary effects on the patent
system.
Besides the greater openness that Peer to Patent promotes
in
evaluating individual patent applications, it is creating a
new
transparency and understanding of the functioning of the patent
system
as a whole. I'll give some background to help readers understand
the
significance of Manny Schecter's newsletter item, which concerns
prior
art that exists outside of patents. I'll add my own comments
about
software patents.
Let's remind ourselves of the basic rule of patenting: no one
should
get a patent for something that was done before by someone else.
Even
if …