Parade of Patents
by Kimberly Chapple
Thomas Jefferson sat on the
first patent board created in 1790, which was based on Constitutional
language expressing that "Congress may provide inventors
with rights to their inventions." Being an agricultural-based
society at that time, the patent office didn't see much action.
Fast forward 200 years, however, and you find the U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office (PTO) in the midst of examining an Everest
of potential patents as the filing rate grows (163,306 patents
were filed in 1989; 201,554 in 1994; more than 300,000 in
1999).
BountyQuest Founder, Charles Cellar 
People have widely varying views of the patent system. Some
think it works, encouraging competition and competitiveness.
Others believe it's in need of reform, viewing it as an exhausted
system with overworked employees, resulting in a PTO that
issues suprisingly broad patents. Patent attorneys are accused
of "stealing the future."
Enter BountyQuest, Boston, MA, a company whose founders'
shared vision of market-based patent reform begins with an
Internet site that uses networks of human beings and new economic
markets to harness the power of knowledge. It wants to help
the PTO see things more clearly. "The U.S. Patent Office
doesn't have quality prior art [evidence that helps determine
whether an invention process is actually new], especially
in some of the newer technologies," says Charles Celler,
BountyQuest CEO, whose other founders include Amazon.com's
Jeff Bezos and computer book publisher Tim O'Reilly. "We
tap into the world's knowledge market to uncover hard-to-find
information, which can be used to weed out bad patents --
and validate good ones."
BountyQuest pays $10,000 to $100,000 "bounties"
to design engineering professionals like yourselves who provide
evidence of prior art that prove patents posted on its website
are not from original ideas. Launched just three months ago,
the company has already awarded four $10,000 awards to hunters
like Clarke McAllister, an electrical engineering ski buff
who saw the technology in his patented Ski-Key invention (an
electronic identification wristband that controls access to
ski slopes) listed in a BountyQuest "Alterable Tickets
to Event Venues" posting. Former IBM engineer Frank Pita
collected another $10,000; a lead designer on the IBM 2210
Multiprotocol Router in the early 1990s, he noticed a posting
which sounded very much like a then-revolutionary Motorola
MC68360 Quad Integrated Communication Controller (QUICC) chip.
Sure enough, a patent was awarded to Cisco for what BountyQuest
determined is the same technology.
So what do you know that the PTO doesn't know? Your knowledge
could be worth some cash: $10,000 for information on a braking
device for a scooter; $25,000 for systems and methods for
monitoring and controlling tractor/trailer vehicle systems;
and $50,000 for information on reformulated gasoline to reduce
auto emissions. Start checking your files.
For more information: Circle 554 - BountyQuest
or connect directly to their website via the Online Reader
Service Program at http://www.OneRS.net/103df-554
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