The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Patent Foundation (PubPat) started the ball rolling with public interest challenges to patents via reexamination. Now the Center for Patent Innovations at NYLS have set their sights on post grant reviews. By leveraging their peer-to-patent system, the group hopes to help discover prior art that will invalidate issued claims. "Our citizen-experts have already found a number of items of prior art relevant to patents being asserted againt Microsoft, Google, and Facebook." (Post-Issue) The project is looking for law students to help. Not relying on altruism -- Article One Partners has offered $50,000 for helping invalidate several Rambus patents. "If one or more references show a patent to be invalid, the first respondent who found the research earns the reward." (Article One) If you do find the Rambus prior art, please post a note here first so that we can all sell short.
* Note -- I am an Advisory Board Member of the Center for Patent Innovations (although I did not know about this recent development until it had already been released).
