Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Day in the Life of a Patent Examiner

Posted by michael on from the turkey-day dept.

ahdkd writes "Forbes has an older article which describes the world of patent examining: Search 500,000 Documents, Review 160,000 Pages In 20 Hours, And Then Do It All Over Again. Might help people understand the USPTO and patents in general a little better."

2 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Evidence that the system is a failure by dada21 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I believe this article is yet another nail in the coffin of the patent system. It is time to rethink the patent system. Economist Fritz Machlup has proven that patents do not entice corporations to develop new products; in fact, the "short-term advantage a company derives from developing a new product and being the first to put it on the market may be incentive enough."

    Patents offer a authoritarian power to destroy competition, increase prices, and skew the relationship between research and creation by scaring off new ideas developed on old ones.

  2. Do It Right by SpamJunkie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My feelings on this are simple: do it right or don't do it at all.

    If the government can't create a system that approves patents corrently then there should be no approval process at all, and thus, no patents at all. It would be better to let the market protect innovators, however weak the protection, than to let a flawed patent office allow innovators to be harmed by those that would exploit the flaws.