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For each Internet social network effort that thrives, there are dozens that fail to generate any interest from the surfing masses.

An early dud was BountyQuest.com, launched in 2000 with financial backing from Amazon's Jeff Bezos. The premise was simple: Posters to the site would highlight a patent they wanted to see blown out of the water, and visitors could receive up to $50,000 for presenting evidence that the patent wasn't, in fact, the first document to describe the invention in question. BountyQuest's problem was that too few got involved in the action. It fizzled within three years.

One former employee, Cheryl Milone, believes the company's business model deserves a second chance, given the rise in popularity of "crowdsourced" online projects like Wikipedia. In November, Milone, a Manhattan patent attorney, launched ArticleOnePartners.com to do more than just provide a means for prior-art mercenaries to peddle their wares. This time, Milone and a team of three intellectual property lawyers are the ones deciding which patents visitors should be harassing. And she's got two strategies for quickly turning a buck if a visitor does submit patent-busting information. (See "Meta Data: ArticleOnePartners.com").

Say a visitor sends ArticleOne evidence (an article in an obscure academic journal, for example) that calls into question the validity of one of Pfizer's Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) patents for cholesterol reducer Lipitor. Milone would make that information public on the site--and, at the same time, she could short the stock of Pfizer and go long on the stock of competitors eager to sell a generic version of Lipitor. In theory, she'd make a bundle once the industry finds out what she knows.

And if Milone doesn't see a way to make money on the markets using her newfound information? She could try selling the information to Pfizer directly--or to one of its competitors. "Our interest is first to monetize our research, to maintain our revenue stream," Milone says.

She might be on her way. Within three days of launching, ArticleOne received more than 50 prior-art submissions, some from as far away as India and the Ukraine. Milone calls visitors who submit prior art "advisors." A year from now, 5% of ArticleOne's net profit will be divvied up among the advisors, who will have been awarded points based on the amount of prior art they've coughed up. If an advisor provides prior art Milone and company think is strong enough to invalidate a patent, a $50,000 reward is automatic.

Milone wouldn't say who has funded ArticleOne, but she raised "low seven figures" from Wall Street investors and has invested some of her own money in the site. Milone insists funding hasn't come from major tech companies or wealthy patent trolls.