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US Patent Office To Hire 500 New Examiners

Posted by Hemos on from the get-them-in-there dept.

ddillman writes to us with a story from EEtimes that is reporting that the US Government, specifically the PTO, is hiring up to 500 electrical engineers to help assess the validity of new patent claims on technical gadgets. Good - and with the downturn in the high tech industry you can get them cheap.

9 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Cheap, eh? by dbolger · · Score: 3, Funny

    Good - and with the downturn in the high tech industry you can get them cheap.
    Ummmm, are you talking about the patents, the gadgets....or the examiners? ;)

    1. Re:Cheap, eh? by mikeage · · Score: 3, Funny

      Good - and with the downturn in the high tech industry you can get them cheap.
      Ummmm, are you talking about the patents, the gadgets....or the examiners? ;)

      Yes.

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      -- Is "Sig" copyrighted by www.sig.com?
  2. Dammit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Well, there goes all my hopes at becoming rich on the simple, all-encompassing patents I am waiting on.

  3. dunno about you, but. . . by waxmop · · Score: 2, Funny

    i'm putting together my rez right this minute - goodbye dreary finance meetings and hello checking 'adult pleasure devices' for prior art!

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    Long-term effects of Bush deficits
  4. The real question, however... by PhReaKyDMoNKeY · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...is whether or not they'll help keep down the level of bullshit patents (defensive patents or whatever you call them) so certain companies *cough*adobe*cough*macromedia*cough*microsoft* won't be able to sue willy-nilly anymore. Well, I'm sure they'll find a way to do that anyway, but it might slow them down a bit.

    Damn the evil corporations!

  5. Great! by susano_otter · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now maybe they'll have time to approve my patent for "a solar-powered perpetual motion machine in an open entropic system". Once that's done, I can get busy collecting royalties on all those solar-powered cars, calculators, and roadside assistance phones!

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    Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.

  6. 500 patent examiners... by Dutchmaan · · Score: 2, Funny

    So what does that equate to in the proportional number of corporate lawyers...???

    Something like this could result in a lawyer singularity!!!

    Not even rational thinking can escape a lawyer singularity!!!

  7. Re:(+5, Insightful) [mod up parent] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    No, that was a Dilbert strip. Microsoft engineers get paid a salary commensurate with their position in the company.

  8. Re:Gadgets not software by Tackhead · · Score: 3, Funny
    > If you read the article, you'll see this only applies to telecommunications and electronic devices. No mention made about software or Internet technology. So no worries, folks, I'm sure we'll still have plenty of silly "one-click" patents to talk about here on /.

    USPTO: Look, we need 500 new engineers for the USPTO, and we need 'em now.

    Grunt:Why?

    USPTO:Because we have so many frivolous patent applications coming in for crap like clicking on web sites and ways to keep cats amused that our current examiners can barely keep up with the load. You got any idea how tired a guy's arm gets slamming down that damn rubber stamp for eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year?

    Grunt:Ah, I get it. You want a different process for the types of companies that might have actual innovations, but what you really want to do is make sure idiot dot-coms with obvious applications of prior art also have a fair shake at approval!

    USPTO:For great justice, approve every patent!