3 ms·

Is that a component of the patent system? It would be nice if there was (maybe there is) a "reasonable reproduction test" that required a patent's acceptance t

Is that a component of the patent system? It would be nice if there was (maybe there is) a "reasonable reproduction test" that required a patent's acceptance to be conditioned on someone being able to achieve the claim reasonably by reading it. Since the system exists for the benefit of humanity, I assume that is baked into the process?

jordanpg 3y ago
There is a test like that. It's called the "enablement" test and you must enable someone to build the thing in order to get a patent. I'm talking more about the practical act of sitting down and reading a patent. They are long, boring, and filled with legalese. A patent may be 50 pages long, but the interesting part may fill no more than a few paragraphs and be described using nouns and verbs you've never heard before. It's completely possible to read a patent, look at the pictures, and still have no idea what the thing actually is. It's essentially legal abstraction -- inventors and patent attorneys don't want to be pinned down to a particular interpretation, implementation, or embodiment.