damages. This assumes that assurances from the USPTO and Peer To Patent that reviewing an application does not constitute knowledge of the final patent are invalid and will be rejected in court. Third parties will be afraid to help overturn a patent application for fear that the applicant (particularly if it's a large company) will retaliate later. There are too many patent applications for the public to review every one adequately. Those who have the time and expertise to look for prior art will take their chances, waiting for the patent office to approve patents and then challenging the patents at the patent offices or in court. Third parties who submit prior art during the patent application cannot argue in favor of that prior art during the prosecution of the patent (the discussion between the examiner and the applicant). During this ex parte discussion, the applicant has a definite advantage in arguing his or her case. Third parties will therefore wait and reserve their prior art for court cases where they have an equal chance to argue their point. This argument rests on the premise that third parties are willing to assume the hundreds of thousands (or often millions) of dollars in costs that a court challenge requires. Large companies will devote resources to denying the applications of their competitors, and small companies will not be able to marshal the corresponding resources to knock out the patents of large companies. This argument assumes that the general public will not step up to the responsibility of reviewing patents. See also Public participation in patent examination References Adam B Jaffe and Josh Lerner, Innovation and Its Discontents, Princeton University Press, 2004. Eli Kintisch, "U.S. Patent Policy: PTO Wants to Tap Experts to Help Patent Examiners," Science, Vol. 312., no. 5776, p. 982, May 19, 2006 Matthew Swibel, "Wiki-Patents," Forbes, August 13, 2007 Noveck, Beth Simone, Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful, Brookings Institution Press, 2009. External links Peer to Patent main web site Peer-to-Patent Australia web site Peer to Patent Japan web site Patent law Agencies of the United States government Group decision-making Crowdsourcing