Researching prior art is a part of the application and approval process to obtain a patent in most patent systems. Prior art is defined as all of the information which might be relevant to the claim of originality for a patent and which was available to the public before a given date. This information can be in any form, but it must have been publicly available. Prior art is especially important for a patent because if it can be shown the idea was already available to the public, through prior art, then the application for a patent will be rejected.

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Determining whether prior art exists, or not, is often a difficult task since the prior art may be in a little-known book, a foreign journal, or even in a discontinued product. a patent examiner may have difficulty determining whether prior art is available and whether it is applicable to a particular patent. If a patent is granted, others may claim that previously unknown prior art exists, and claim the patent is invalid. Finding prior art in fast-moving fields such as biotechnology and business processes is even harder, since much of the current information is not even in traditional journals and sources.

In recent years the number of patent applications has risen worldwide, patent approval authorities have fallen behind, and approval standards have suffered. Consequently more and more patents are being challenged, often on the basis of pre-existing prior art.

Peer-to-Patent Project

The Peer-to-Patent Project was started by Beth Simone Noveck in order to make the discovery process for prior art easier and more timely. The project is being supported by the European Patent Office, the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office and a website is located at  www.peertopatent.org.

Peer-to-Patent is based on the idea that the traditional patent examiner cannot know every prior art source and item in detail. By drawing on the combined resources of a wide group of people who are knowledgeable about the particular subject, a better search for prior art can be made. The Peer-to-Patent project aims to facilitate this collective evaluation process.

The operation of Peer-to-Patent, as described on its website, is as follows:
• a patent application is uploaded to the Peer-to-Patent website
• people who are interested and knowledgeable about the patent subject will review and discuss it
• prior art will be researched and relevant items will be uploaded
• the group evaluates the prior art which has been submitted
• The "Top Ten" prior art references will be sent to the patent application office

The Project is currently in a testing phase. More information can be found on the Peer-to-Patent website.

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