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Patenting inventions that don't work is a great way to waste a lot of money on patent attorneys and patent office fees. Worldwide patenting can get even more r

• deleted 8y ago
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• vlovich123 8y ago
  The reason it's done is that you structure the patent broad enough & vague enough to still be enforceable but cover more than what exact specific thing you were actually thinking about. It's shitty IMO & a lot of patent trolls rely on this but that's one of the downsides of the way the patent system works (it's a tradeoff - if you tried to solve this problem you'd end up creating other problems so you have to figure out which downsides your OK living with or mitigating in other ways).
• windyfeeling 8y ago
  I am listed as (co)inventor for several patents from my last job with a big firm. All but a couple of them my report to my team lead was along the lines of “this new method does not provide a benefit over what’s existing, but also does not negatively impact.” It’s truly an experience sitting in a conference call with a company patent lawyer where you say one thing and then you listen to them spin it in a more positive light. The money needed to file the patents pay out patent bonuses (to the people listed as (co)inventors) is literally a rounding error. My team lead held on the order of tens of patents, all with similar findings, all filed to prevent our competition from patenting first.