The US Patent Office needs your help

My office made the front page of The Washington Post today, with an announcement of a new pilot program that will allow the public to comment on the merits of pending patent applications. A number of companies have volunteered to allow their applications to enter the pilot program that will allow internet users to review the application contents and provide prior art documentation and comments that are intended to help the examiners make better evaluations of the merits of the application. Recognizing that the system will likely be the target of people trying to game the system, it will include a voting system to attempt to identify the most relevant comments, which will then be provided to the examiner for consideration.

I'm curious to to see how this program will work out. If well implemented, with good controls to minimize the gaming of the system, it could be a really useful tool that will provide the examiners with the most relevant (and often obscure) documentation into the hands of the examiner. This in turn should improve the quality of the decision making in the examination process and increase the quality of the resulting patents. However, a poor implementation could simply bury the examiner in additional useless documentation that only wastes what limited time is available to evaluate these applications.

Of course, the only way to evaluate the merits of this pilot program is if people actually use it. The news article doesn't provide any details about when or where the applications will be available, but I suspect that an announcement will be posted on the US Patent and Trademark Office website when the pilot is officially launched.

Call me a lunatic

On Friday, I saw an article about Saturday's impending total lunar eclipse, which caught my attention. It seemed like a fun opportunity to try and get some interesting pictures, so I spent a good amount of time on Friday and Saturday trying to think of places that were convenient where I could get a good view of the eastern horizon, as the eclipse was to occur right at moonrise here on the East Coast. Eventually, I decided that the most promising and convenient spot was the soccer field behind my daughter's school. So, on Saturday evening, just before 6pm, I grabbed my camera bag and walked up the street with my daughters. When we arrived, I discovered I wasn't the only one who thought this might be a good spot. Another gentleman from the neighborhood was there with his grandchildren and his camera. Unfortunately for all of us, there was a bank of clouds low on the eastern horizon, and we didn't get to see the moon at all until almost 6:45, by which time the total eclipse was completely over. While the moon was still a bit reddish, it was still obscured by some high thin clouds, so there was no opportunity to get any pictures.

Last week's mini-crisis

Wednesday afternoon my wife left a rather frantic voice message on my work phone. Our younger daughter had taken our 5 month old puppy out to play, but had dropped the leash. When she tried to pick up the leash she apparently spooked the dog, who started to run away from my daughter. By the time our daughter got my wife outside to help recapture the puppy, it had vanished. That evening, me wife e-mailed everyone she knew in the neighborhood, posted fliers on practically every vertical pole within a mile of the house and enlisted the aid of almost a dozen neighbors to help search for the missing puppy. All this effort was for naught...the puppy remained missing.

Thursday, my wife began calling local animal shelters and veterinary clinics. She had me fax her "Lost Dog" flier to most of these, so they could post them. She also visited local businesses to post fliers. This time, it paid off. The puppy was found Thursday evening, hiding under a car in a townhouse community several blocks away, shivering, wet and muddy. The lady who found her gave her a bath and warmed her up. Since it was late enough that the shelters and animal clinics were closed, she went to the local grocery store to buy some dog food. She mentioned her situation to an employee, who then showed her the flier. She called us, and my wife went straight over and retrieved the puppy.

I must say that I was greatly impressed with the outpouring of community support we received. Its far too easy to feel anonymous in the suburban communities around here, but people were supportive and helpful. A number of people help us by posting fliers or searching the areas around their homes. It felt a great deal like the kind of small town response I used to experience growing up. Its nice to know that there are good people in our community, and that they really do care about their neighbors.