> The reason you get BS patents is because they only give the clerk a small amount of time to make a decision, so they have to work with whatever info they have

> The reason you get BS patents is because they only give the clerk a small amount of time to make a decision, so they have to work with whatever info they have -- they don't have time to seek out additional information. As a former USPTO patent examiner, I can confirm that this is the main reason for low patent quality. > This is sometimes true, but also isn't super relevant. The patent office contracts out to experts to help them evaluate a patent. My friend worked as one of these contractors. He would get patents in his field of expertise in which he holds a PhD and had 15 years of work experience, and then write a report and do the prior art searches. He would then send his report back to the patent clerk. I never found the contract search help to be useful. ("STIC search" is what I'm thinking of. Your friend may have been on a different contract as I'm not familiar with specific contract subject matter experts providing search help.) I'd guess that the problem is that those folks get even less time than I did!