Crowdsourcing to solve patent issues goes back to 2008 when this buzz was created in the global online community. An American patent research company “Article One” has awarded about $1.3 million to its researchers for Crowdsourcing investigations related to “Prior Art” for the purpose of invalidating patents infringement claims made by various companies to sue the defendants. The latest being Macrosolve, which apparently sued Apple, Android and Blackberry apparel developers. Recently, US based companies Macrosolve and Lodsys filed many infringement lawsuits against Mobile App developers for using their patented technologies for the apparel purchases.
Article One Partners, a New York based company has crowdsouced the job for finding " Prior Art " to invalidate the infringement claims made by Macrosolve to sue Mobile App developers. It is evident that the recent surge in the patent infringement suits made in the Mobile App world, has left many small time Mobile App developers baffled since they do not have much to offer in terms of settlements, royalties and licenses, against such technology infringement claims.
Alternatively, Article One has opened a vast opportunity for the global community to participate and unravel the prior art involved in the Macrosolve’s patent claims, in lieu of which it will award, the successful researchers cash prices worth $5,000 to $20,000 per study. As per Cheryl Milone , CEO of Article One Partners, in a statement to Guardian : "We believe the Article One model benefits more than just the clients. This Study is a prime example of how multiple parties can participate in solving a potentially costly problem. Application developers and the general public alike can join the search for prior art that impacts the burgeoning mobile app marketplace".
Well, all I can say is that Crowdsourcing has certainly been a great problem solving and cost effective way to approach the global community of contractors. The foray of Crowdsourcing into patent prior art research will pave the way for many cost effective and technology oriented resources in the future.
(Image by Sanja Gjenero)
