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The patent holder didn't receive their patent by accident. It was reviewed by an examiner in the patent office. Patent examiners are skilled technical researche

The patent holder didn't receive their patent by accident. It was reviewed by an examiner in the patent office. Patent examiners are skilled technical researchers who are trained to comprehend the matter they are examining. Once a patent has been granted, indeed, there is benefit of the doubt that the patent is valid. However - when it comes to whether the patent applies to a given invention, that's a matter of debate in a courtroom.

simondotau 5y ago
That’s certainly a good description of how the patent registration process is designed to work. Unfortunately reality, as represented by the broad proliferation of exceedingly moronic patents, begs to differ.
sircastor 5y ago
In think you are grossly overestimating the effort and expertise being applied in patent approval. Or more specifically, I think you’re overestimating the expertise of the examiner in the relevant field.
chris_wot 5y ago
Patent examiners seem to grant all sorts of crap that is prior art. I have very little faith in them. Edit: removed example, it was wrong.
smaudet 5y ago
This is also completely ignoring economics of quality for government - the folks working there typically are either bottom rung (willing to accept non-competetive lower pay), or as a 'civic duty' of some sort. There is some exception perhaps for the intelligence community (NSA et all) because they have had somewhat a monopoly in that legally speaking, although again, there are private entities out there you never hear of which may be of higher quality. But even there, talk to pretty much any vet - you can quickly surmise that as far as classifications go, most stuff is over classified without valid reason, because the safest thing to do for the low level peon is slap a "top secret" on anything and everything... And there's plenty of evidence otherwise as others have mentioned - most patents are garbage and should never have been given out.

simondotau 5y ago

That’s certainly a good description of how the patent registration process is designed to work. Unfortunately reality, as represented by the broad proliferation of exceedingly moronic patents, begs to differ.

sircastor 5y ago

In think you are grossly overestimating the effort and expertise being applied in patent approval. Or more specifically, I think you’re overestimating the expertise of the examiner in the relevant field.

chris_wot 5y ago

Patent examiners seem to grant all sorts of crap that is prior art. I have very little faith in them. Edit: removed example, it was wrong.

smaudet 5y ago

This is also completely ignoring economics of quality for government - the folks working there typically are either bottom rung (willing to accept non-competetive lower pay), or as a 'civic duty' of some sort. There is some exception perhaps for the intelligence community (NSA et all) because they have had somewhat a monopoly in that legally speaking, although again, there are private entities out there you never hear of which may be of higher quality. But even there, talk to pretty much any vet - you can quickly surmise that as far as classifications go, most stuff is over classified without valid reason, because the safest thing to do for the low level peon is slap a "top secret" on anything and everything... And there's plenty of evidence otherwise as others have mentioned - most patents are garbage and should never have been given out.