Open sourcing the patent process

This story (Open Call From the Patent Office – washingtonpost.com) suggest that a breath of fresh air may be entering the patent-review process:

The Patent and Trademark Office is starting a pilot project that will not only post patent applications on the Web and invite comments but also use a community rating system designed to push the most respected comments to the top of the file, for serious consideration by the agency’s examiners. A first for the federal government, the system resembles the one used by Wikipedia, the popular user-created online encyclopedia.

via, everywhere
oh, and this is the sort of thing I would have posted to the The Power of Many blog in the past but in the interests of blog-consolidation I am posting it here now.
Which means I have to next import all the PoM original posts into this blog, under a single category, and then have the PoM site subscribe to that category from this blog so it can still have fresh content on its home page from time to time.