The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) wants help as it tests a new automated search program that will give inventors a look at similar ideas to speed patent reviews and boost their quality.
In an Oct. 8 posting to the Federal Register, the USPTO said that it is looking for inventors and applicants who are willing to volunteer their patent applications as it pilots its new Automated Search Pilot Program.
“With this pilot program, the USPTO aims to ascertain the impact of sharing a pre-examination search report on prosecution by applicants, evaluate the scalability of generating ASRNs, and collect data to inform next steps,” said the USPTO in its posting.
Typical patent review processes take about 1.5 to 3 years after filing, but that timeline depends on complexity, the technology field, and the patent reviewer’s workload, according to USPTO.
The pilot program will use automated search results notices – which are short reports – that will be sent to applicants, including up to 10 of what it deems are the most similar inventions or publications to the creation before the examiner begins the formal review process.
AI used to power the search engine “will use the contextual information to find similar information in publicly available documents located in a number of databases available to the USPTO,” including those from foreign patent organizations, and will then “rank the returned documents from most to least relevant.”
The USPTO said that it plans to accept at least 1,600 patent applications that will be distributed across its technology centers, noting that each center will receive at least 200 applications.
The agency said it will accept applications beginning Oct. 20 through April 20.