Filed under: Internet, News, Web services
US Patent and Trademark Office goes social
It's not question that the United States patent system has got some issues. So what's the latest proposal by the US Patent and Trademark Office? Recruit the wisdom of the masses.A pilot project launching soon will put patent applications up on the web, allowing visitors to the site to post comments. There'll also be a rating system for comments, pushing the most popular comments to the top of the list. In other words, users who visit Digg, Netscape, and other social news web sites will find the process pretty familiar, and could play a role in approving or rejecting patents.
The first items to go online will be about 250 patent applications related to software design. That's a field where it's quite likely that many visitors to the web site will have greater expertise than the patent officers reviewing the applications.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
