The topic of this Project is: Open Source as Prior Art (should probably be renamed to FLOSS as Prior Art, just to be neutral about some political/social issues). Thus you need to know what FLOSS and Prior Art is. Here you can find some basic information:

• Free/Libre/Open-Source Software - FLOSS
• Open Source Definition
• Open-source Software
• Prior Art - Introduction to Prior Art
• Patent Top Ten - Top 10 things you should know about patents

Things that can be done right now

• HowTo search for Prior Art in the Internet ( HowTo search for Prior Art in the Internet )
• This HowTo is a step-by-step guide on how you could perform a coordinated search for Prior Art in the Internet.

• Prior Art meta-search engine
• (will be) a system to aid your search for Prior Art

• Example Prior Art search
• An example where the HowTo search for Prior Art is used on one specific patent

• Publication Categorization
• If you have no idea, what kind of software might be used as Prior Art for a specific patent, then look here. Basicly this is a mapping between USPTO categories and FLOSS categories.

• Request for Prior Art Mailinglist
• This might become a mailinglist where you can ask for associations to specific patents. So more people might help you to find appropriate starting-points for your Prior Art research.

• Timestamping & Date Forensics

• Guideline for Developers
• What can you do to ensure your program can be used as Prior Art in 20 years

• Tagging Prototype
• Easier searching for Prior Art (or for reusing appropriate code in your own project)

• OSSTag
• A Social Tagging Engine

• Timestamping & Date Forensics

• Patent Law - some important excerpts regarding Prior Art
• Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP)
• 900 Prior Art, Classification, and Search
• Printed and electronic publications as Prior Art
• Notice of Public Hearing and Request for Comments on Issues Related to the Identification of Prior Art During the Examination of a Patent Application . - In 1999 the USPTO issued an RFC, here you find the RFC itself and lots of comments

• Proposed Rule Changes to Focus the Patent Process in the 21st Century, Januar 2006 (link)

• Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property Oversight Hearing on "Patent Quality Enhancement in the Information-Based Economy", April 5th, 2006, including Video-Stream

• CAPAS - Computer Aided Prior Art Search

• FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

• Milestones - General Project goals – what people can do to help

• Motivations - The motivations behind this project

• Questions for the USPTO - Questions posed to the USPTO by members of the OSS community

• Glossary - Words, phrases, and acronyms explained

• Out of Scope - Patent reform alternatives outside the scope of this project

Tagging Workshop 2006 Sep - agenda + attendees + presentations + conclusions

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