The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has indicated that 900 registrants will seek a $50,000 innovation prize for winning a software tournament, the goal of which is to improve the US PTO examination process.
Hopefully, the innovation will be the subject of a patent application – and that the PTO will wave the normal PTO fees!?
The problem to be solved: most patent examiners (and patent attorneys, for that matter) “waste” time in reviewing figures by the need to go back-and-forth between the drawing and the text describing the drawing.
The solution: better software.
How to get the solution: set up a software tournament with a cash prize!
Winners to be announced around February 16, 2012.
We have written before about the prize approach to providing the incentive to innovate (see August 1 and July 8, 2010 blogs, for example).
Hopefully, the NNI and other government organizations associate with nanotech and cleantech are watching.