As I wrote in this first email, The US Patent and Trademark Office held a webcast (archived too) discussion on Wednesday to discuss public access to patent application documents, and to invite public suggestions about the demand for this information, and for suggestions on how they should open access to it.

This is exciting to me for two reasons.

First, I’m excited to see the agency open itself to public commentary on a procedure they haven’t designed yet, especially since this has to do with government information (patent application materials).

The second reason I’m excited about it is because of the information involved.  I was contacted by people knowledgable about the patent application process some time ago to talk about how the patent applicaition process might be made more efficient by providing access to the documents.  In short, patent applications materials, when made public, have a public benefit.  Aside from being generally valuable information, it has a value for both the applicants and the examiners, as the documentation can serve as evidence of the kind of process an applicant can expect to encounter, especially if the information access were to make patent applications materials searchable by topic/field, or by year, etc.  If applicants know what kind of proof is necessary because they have access to all of the other applicants appeals and denials, and can see the reasoning and dates involved, they’ll probably submit applications that are geared to the challenges they’ll eventually meet.

Someone else was apparently having these kinds of thoughts about the so called “file wrapper” that contains the applications materials; the Public PAIR website has been getting hit with automated requests (too many), which overloaded the servers, which resulted in the imposition of CAPTCHAs.  Sounds familiar to Congress dealing with email.  Just as I respect both decisions as operationally necessary,  I also suspect the answer to both will involve  a different kind of data access.

USPTO’s webcast explains the new CAPTCHA system wherein one must prove their humanhood by typing in a slightly squiggly word–I hate when I fail the human test. :(    .  They also explain that they’re now open to suggestions about creating public access to the data.  My limited technological knowledge leads me to the usual suspects: APIs (public or by key), full download, physical data transfer.

USPTO is only partway along in their transition to XML and digital documents, so an eventual solution for free patent applications materials may involve OCR on image files, but soliciting suggestions is the first step in making that connection.

The EPA just announced something similar to this program.  They’ve launched a “National Dialogue” on environmental information, explained in a video by the EPA’s CIO, Molly O’Neill.

I wonder if there are a set of best practices for different types of public involvement in agency or legislative functions.  This is something that should be tracked: (or would make a good thesis for someone studying public policy or government): What are the different types of collaborative projects designed to use the Internet to involve the public in an agency’s work (or in Congress’s work.  the judiciary’s work?  probably not.)  This could be used to understand the best methods for opening collaborative projects, and determine whether they’re risky, technically difficult, or overly cautious.  These best practices are necessary in the same way that public-private partership guidelines are necessary for digitization projects.