Blather in the San Jose Mercury News

Two commentators to the San Jose Mercury News took an odd approach in pushing patent reform:

Unfortunately, the act fails to address the crux of the problem, particularly for pharmaceuticals: raising the bar on patent quality, so true inventions, not pseudo inventions, are awarded the privileges of patent protection.

To do this, Congress must harness the power of "citizen review," which is employed effectively in many parts of the world. Citizen review permits knowledgeable experts across all technical fields to weigh in on the merits of a new application and submit pertinent information while it is still under review and also after a patent has been issued. This helps patent examiners to more effectively sort worthy inventions from unworthy ones.

Rule 99 is apparently unknown to them:

Although AIA permits citizens, for the first time, to provide feedback before a patent is granted, these rights provide unfair advantage to large corporations.

Peer review is pushed:


Congress should embrace citizen review. Sadly, current reforms fail to do this.