The Peer to Patent portal is a headline example of Open Government, founded by one its keynote experts Beth Noveck.

This project illustrates the huge potential for business transformation. It’s not simply about connecting an existing IT system to a web interface or just publishing the reporting data online, but rather utilizing the nature of the web to entirely re-invent the process itself.

The full case study is documented in this 40 page Harvard white paper.

In essence it transforms the process from ‘closed’ to ‘open’, in terms of who and how others can participate, utilizing the best practice of ‘Open Innovation‘ to break the gridlock that had occured due the constraints caused by private, traditional ways of working.

The USPTO had built up a backlog of over 1 million patent applications and are unblocking this log jam by moving it to a Web 2.0 environment where ‘Collective Intelligence’ models can be harnessed.