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Judging novelty or obviousness of software is an intractable problem placed on the patent office. There are too many people "inventing" diverse software too qui
by brlewis 11y ago
Judging novelty or obviousness of software is an intractable problem placed on the patent office. There are too many people "inventing" diverse software too quickly. If millions of people carried gene labs around in their backpacks it would be an intractable problem for biology patents too.
- chris_wot 11y agoHow do patent officers judge novelty or obviousness? I mean, I find a loop obvious, but a non-programmer applying it to another domain might consider it novel, even if it's not to me. The answer: they can't, it's all subjective to the examiner, and the examiner has an incentive yo eventually pass the patent. Then it has to go through an expensive court case where only a patent troll wins because they threaten lawsuits which some companies can't afford, even if the patent is bullshit, or nobody wins as the patent troll doesn't succeed, but no or inadequate costs are awarded to the defendant.