Contacts:

Nancy Guida,   212.431.2325, nguida@nyls.edu

Daniela Reif, 650.482.2566, dreif@omidyar.net

 

 

New York, November 08, 2006—The Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School (http://dotank.nyls.edu) announced today that Omidyar Network has awarded a $500,000 grant to underwrite the Institute’s Community Patent Review Project. The grant will help support the development of a pilot online system for open peer review of patent applications.

“We are honored to have Omidyar Network award this grant for the Community Patent Review Project. Omidyar Network supports forward-thinking efforts that engage communities of people to make positive change, and this project certainly meets those criteria,” said New York Law School Dean Richard A. Matasar. 

 

"We believe that governmental decision-making will improve with greater information and believe the Patent Office and the public will benefit from more informed decisions about patentability,” said Will Fitzpatrick, corporate counsel at Omidyar Network.  The Community Patent Review project is an effort to engineer the practices and the systems that will allow us to act in concert and to develop the models by which we can govern more openly."

 

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) selected The Community Patent Review pilot as one of its strategic initiatives and will be in a cooperative relationship with the New York Law School Institute for Information Law & Policy. The pilot online system will allow the scientific community to submit “prior art”—information relevant to assessing if an invention is patentable—with commentary to the patent examiner. The project is developing a deliberation methodology and technology to allow community rating, ranking, and processing of prior art and feedback from patent examiners.  

 

“The Community Patent Review Project takes advantage of today’s community-based technology to improve the quality of U.S. patents in a manner that is aligned with the basic tenets of the patent system,” said Professor Beth Noveck, Director of the Institute for Information Law & Policy. “This initiative does precisely what Thomas Jefferson intended the patent system to do by reaching out to the scientific community.”

 

The Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School will be responsible for overall administration of the pilot in partnership with the USPTO. A Steering Committee made up of lead patent counsel for the Lead Sponsors and an Advisory Board, comprising a wide range of patent stakeholders, will oversee the initiative. All Community Patent review project documents and deliberations are open and available on the World Wide Web for public comment and participation. The USPTO aims to pilot this new examination system in 2007. General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Red Hat, and Computer Associates are lead sponsors of the pilot and have already agreed to have their patents examined under this model. Community Patent Review aims to create a blueprint for democratizing policymaking that can be applied, not only to patents, but also to agency decision-making across government.

About the Institute for Information Law & Policy:

The Institute for Information Law & Policy is New York Law School’s home for the study of law, technology, and civil liberties. Participants in the Institute aim not only to understand the interplay of law and technology, but to influence its development. The Institute develops and applies theories of information and communication to analyze law and policy. It also seeks to design new technologies and systems that will best serve democratic values in the digital age. The Institute is, above all, a “do tank” where lawyers innovate, harnessing the new tools of information and communications to the goals of social justice. Taking full advantage of its New York location, the Institute convenes people across disciplines and institutions in pursuit of its goals and exposes students to the best of the legal, technology and design communities. http://dotank.nyls.edu

 

Omidyar Network is a mission-based investment group committed to fostering individual self-empowerment on a global scale. Established in 2004 by Pierre and Pam Omidyar, the organization is founded on the simple core belief that every individual has the power to make a difference. Omidyar Network funds for-profits and nonprofits that promote equal access to information, tools and opportunities; connections around shared interests; and a sense of ownership for participants. Through its work, Omidyar Network intends to catalyze a new breed of business for which social impact directly drives profitability. To learn more about Omidyar Network and the organizations it has funded, please visit http://www.omidyar.net.

 

About New York Law School:
Founded in 1891, New York Law School is an independent law school located in lower Manhattan near the city’s centers of law, government, and finance. New York Law School’s renowned faculty of prolific scholars has built the School’s strength in such areas as constitutional law, civil and human rights, labor and employment law, media and information law, urban legal studies, international and comparative law, and a number of interdisciplinary fields. The school is noted for its six academic centers: Justice Action Center, Center for New York City Law, Center for Professional Values and Practice, Center on Business Law & Policy, Institute for Information Law & Policy, and the Center for International Law. New York Law School has more than 13,000 graduates and enrolls some 1,500 students in its full- and part-time J.D. program and its Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation program. www.nyls.edu