[mixmax]

Congratulations to the stack exchange team for getting this going. It's an incredibly good idea, maybe you could patent it?

[ajiang]

The patent trolls are already on it, patenting crowd-sourcing as a method of patent defense. This will inevitably result in the shut down of Ask Patents in a stunning fit of irony.

[adambard]

If only some sort of prior art could be found...

[cbhl]

Unless SO itself gets issued said patent, and then turns around and issues a royalty-free worldwide license on it to everybody.

[martin-adams]

How about patenting the method of submitting a document to register a patent?

[tomjen3]

Unlikely. After all you have an entire site dedicated to finding prior art. I wouldn't want to get my patent killed over that.