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Patent examiners (the modern term for patent clerks) have at least a bachelors degree in a technical field relevant to the subject they review. That might be ph
by elil17 4y ago
Patent examiners (the modern term for patent clerks) have at least a bachelors degree in a technical field relevant to the subject they review. That might be physics, engineer, chemistry, or something else. Examiners are assigned to specific art unit (e.g. an examiner with a degree in chemistry might be assigned to art unit 1710 and spend their entire career examining patents for chemicals involved in "Coating, Etching, Cleaning, and Single Crystal Growth").
I'm sure some things do get through on occasion, but examiners are most certainly subject matter experts.
- mrguyorama 4y agoThis is news to me! I'm very glad to hear this. Renews a bit of faith in the patent process.
- manchmalscott 4y agoPatent examiners are being moved to a system where they are "automatically" assigned applications to review that may or may not have anything more than superficial in common. I've got a parent that's a patent examiner and they have been complaining loudly about the move because they often don't know much about what they're reviewing anymore.
- elil17 4y agoThat's too bad, I had not heard about this.