> examiners (and non-technical folks who don't think much about it) Patent examiners all have degrees in science or engineering. See, for example, this job lis

> examiners (and non-technical folks who don't think much about it) Patent examiners all have degrees in science or engineering. See, for example, this job listing: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/545074300 https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/545074300. They're also organized into art groups which become experts in narrow fields of inventions. > simple incremental improvements. Almost every patent issued is an incremental improvement of some other invention. By "simple" you probably mean non-obvious, which is one of the requirements for patentability. > I did some "computer work" and a "novel" new ability emerged. That's a different kind of novelty. It's not patentably novel if anyone, anywhere in the world, ever did it publicly before you.