6 ms·
If you had to have your patent reviewed by a team of engineers before it is approved, then we will have less patents.(we don't need a patent for a slick button)
by ibudiallo 14y ago
If you had to have your patent reviewed by a team of engineers before it is approved, then we will have less patents.(we don't need a patent for a slick button) And to file for a law suit, you will also have to have a team of engineers to review it.
This could be a very good thing.
- jacques_chester 14y agoPatents are generally reviewed by degree holders in the same field. Submit a machine, it'll be reviewed by someone trained as a mechanical engineer. Submit a new formula for flubber, a chemist will be assigned to look at it.
- RougeFemme 14y agoI don't know how it is now, but when I graduated my understanding was that as long as your degree was in the general field, you were qualified to review the patent application. So a machine could be reviewed by someone with any engineering degree - industrial, chemical,civil, etc. And my brother's friend - a civil engineer - used to periodically call me to ask me about some coding-related patent. And I - definitely a non-hacker - would always respond "that's just a best practice. anyone who's had a few undergrad programming classes knows that. how can that be patentable". Hopefully, it's changed, but I wouldn't count on it.
- jacques_chester 14y agoI dunno. What I know about patents is what my lawyer has been telling me. There's basically about a zillion ways for a patent to fail, examination is only one. For example, when I lodge in national offices, my application will become public. Anybody will be able to lodge objections and I will be on the hook for the lot, basically.
- rayiner 14y agoMost patents are reviewed by people with corresponding qualifications within the broad categories: mechanical, chemical, biological, electrical. Software tends to fall into the electrical camp.