The very beleaguered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tried a web-based social networking project for two years, but at the end of the day, it failed to work and was shut down. The PTO's idea was to improve patent quality by connecting it with outside scientific and technical experts to evaluate new patent applications. It was called the Peer-to-Patent project, a joint project between the government and the private sector.

The PTO elected to close Peer-to-Patent to new applications "until [completion of] a full evaluation of the impact the project has had on the patent examination process," according to an article in nationaljournal.com. Major IT companies liked the project, including General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft, and submitted applications.

In order to make the patent application process an efficient one, the PTO still has a long way to go. We hope they are hard at work figuring out how to get these applications moving.

For more on patent snags:
- check out this nationaljournal.com article