The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is now providing open access to most new patent applications. There is an exception for applications covered by confidentiality laws, and the delay between filing and OA dissemination can be up to 18 months. However, even with these exceptions about 90% new applications are now OA. The OA system fulfills a 1999 directive from Congress. If the achievement sounds minor, consider that at the time Congress issued its directive, before patent applications were digitized (let alone put online or made OA), pending applications would make a pile of paper 27 miles high. For more details, see Anne Harding, US Publishes Patent Application Files Online, The Scientist, September 27, 2004.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/28/2004 08:58:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
