FTC Issues Report Critical Of Patent Policy

hayek writes "The Federal Trade Commission issued a report yesterday regarding failings in current U.S. patent policy. Among other things, the FTC recommends that the burden of proof on parties challenging patents in court be lowered from the current 'clear and convincing' standard, to the easier 'preponderance of the evidence' standard. Even if you don't think the FTC recommendations go far enough, implementing them would be a good start to solving some of the problems caused by the current system." nolife points out a report at Law.com indicating that, under the current system, "Patent examiners have from 8 to 25 hours to read and understand each application, search for prior art, evaluate patentability, communicate with the applicant, work out necessary revisions, and reach and write up conclusions."

I GOT A GREASED UP YODA DOLL SHOVED UP MY ASS!

[Anonymous Coward]

GO LINUX!

Correction: Patent examiners have....

[Anonymous Coward]

...oh, I'd say somewhere from ZERO [uspto.gov] to 25 hours to read a patent.

It's an oldie but a goodie.

First Post!

[moquist]

First Post (TM). Patent pending... damn. I see evidence of prior art.

I think 8-24hours is a bit optimistic

[jeeves99]

"Patent examiners have from 8 to 25 hours to read and understand each application, search for prior art, evaluate patentability, communicate with the applicant, work out necessary revisions, and reach and write up conclusions."

These are government workers people. You forget that they get coffee every 2 hours, a smoke break every hour, a pastry diversion every 3 hours, and spend 1 out of every 5 minutes keeping the perpetual-motion machine running.

Re:First Post!

[Xeth]

Not necessarily. If Patent Office employees won't spend more than 25 hours reviewing a patent that costs thousands of dollars to apply for, do you really think they'll read at -1?

Re:It's true

[Nugget]

make: *** No rule to make target `lawsuits'. Stop.

This must be why the geeks never seem to prevail in court.