"In a bid to shake up the beleaguered American patent system, a law professor has crafted a proposal that would shift the patent-application process away from individual examiners to an internet-based, peer-review method.
Called Peer to Patent, the proposal by Beth Noveck, director of New York Law School's Institute for Information Law and Policy, aims to relieve the current system, in which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a backlog of half a million cases. Noveck's plan would turn the review process over to tens or hundreds of thousands of experts in various fields who would collectively decide an application's fate via a massive rating system not unlike that of eBay."
Well, I think that an Internet based feedback system providing the Patent Office with hints concerning relevant prior art might be worth considering. However, the final decision on granting or rejecting a patent must under all circumstances be maintained as an administrative deed reviewable under the scrutiny of the courts or the Boards of Appeal, respectively. Allowing the general public to vote on individual patent applications would be a nightmare, both in practical terms as well in terms of constitutional law. The supremacy of the juristiction of the courts must be preserved under all circumstances.
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Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney),
European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of:
Wired.com 
