
Can Machine Learning Fix a Broken Patent System? - sew
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/12/18/can-machine-learning-fix-a-broken-patent-system/#!
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joe_the_user
Can I say just "no"?

As the article notes, no player today an incentive to make patent filings
actually useful, especially in software. Patently are generally framed in
intentionally over-broad terms with the particular advances buried behind the
general idea and offering the least clues possible for those actually aiming
to use the information for anything - what else would you expect from a
document intended to _keep_ people from using an invention without your
permission.

Can we turn a stream of intentionally useless information into something
positive? Maybe a super computer genius could? No, a super computer genius
would be able to _first_ produce useful stuff from nothing, be already at
human+ level _before_ it could pull the "garbage in, diamonds out" trick.

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ivan_ah
This is a tremendous idea and a good implementation. There is a lot of
information and ideas locked in the millions of pages of patent leagalese.

The "collection" feature is awesome: it will allow to crowd-source research
into niche topics. Here is a notebook that shows a birds-eye view of the "who
is who" in the topic modelling patent space:
[http://www.lens.org/lens/search/collection/1698/v/analysis#f...](http://www.lens.org/lens/search/collection/1698/v/analysis#f/owner)

Another possibility would be for "sponsor" companies to pay appropriately
trained freelancers (lawyers, devs, researchers, ...) to conduct patent
research in public. The sponsoring company might not get a "competitive
advantage," but it could be a big PR win. The CompanyX which sponsored the
2014 review of patents on TechnologyX.

Can you imagine how powerful the information contained in patents would be in
combination with links to the relevant research articles?

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bdc
> "[The U.S. patent system] is not obliged to register change in ownership."

That I hadn't known; the implication being, if you intend to leverage a patent
with lawful permission from its licensor, it's _still_ possible to get screwed
(by being misled about the rightful owner's identity, for instance).

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Zikes
It sounds like machine learning will help unmask patent trolls, but unless you
give that machine a gavel I doubt it'll make any difference.

