USPTO to Hold Crowdsourcing Roundtable on December 2, 2014

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will be conducting a roundtable on December 2, 2014 to solicit public opinions concerning the USPTO’s use of crowdsourcing to identify relevant prior art. See Request for Comments and Notice of Roundtable on USPTO Use of Crowdsourcing to Identify Relevant Prior Art.

At the roundtable, topics for discussion will include: (1) how the USPTO can utilize crowdsourcing tools to obtain relevant prior art in order to enhance the quality of examination and issued patents; and (2) ways the USPTO can leverage existing private sector solutions for the electronic receipt and hosting of crowdsourced materials as a means to provide prior art to examiners further to the USPTO’s request for information (RFI). See Crowdsourced Non-Patent Literature Hosting (Solicitation Number: PTOHMB201501). In addition, feedback received responsive to the USPTO’s March 19, 2014 crowdsourcing notice and April 10, 2014 crowdsourcing roundtable will be discussed.

The roundtable will be held in the Moot Court Room, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 55 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003. It will begin at 1 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) and end at 5 pm EST. The meeting will also be accessible via webcast.

Registration to attend the roundtable in person or via webcast is required by November 25, 2014. Additionally, requests to participate in the roundtable as a speaker must be submitted no later thanNovember 18, 2014. To register to attend or request to present as a speaker, please send an email message to CrowdsourcingRoundtableNY@uspto.gov.

The USPTO is also requesting written feedback in response to any of the topics identified in the roundtable notice as well as those to be discussed during the event. Written comments must be received on or before December 9, 2014 to ensure consideration. Please submit your written comments to CrowdsourcingRoundtableNY@uspto.gov.

For additional details please visit the Crowdsourcing Roundtable page on the USPTO website or contact Jack Harvey, Director, Technology Center 2800 by email to [email protected], or by telephone at 571-272-8004.