USPTO Issues 8,000,000th Patent

toybuilder writes "It took nearly 80 years for the first 1 million patents to issue in the U.S. On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued its eight-millionth patent. This most recent 1 million patents took only about 5 years."

Geordi's visor?

[cashman73]

So essentially, US patent #8,000,000 is more or less a very, very early version of Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge's visor. We have a long way to go.

Not 8,000,000th patent

[black soap]

This was patent #8,000,000, or the 8,000,000th numbered patent. before the 1830s, patents were issued but not given numbers. I choose to be pedantic, rather than think about the travesty that our patent law has become - I'll leave that to someone else just this once.

Re:So?

[Anonymous Coward]

The patent system is already quite expensive for the small businesses. The PTO office isn't so bad, but to come up with a any decent patent that will make it through, you need to hire a patent lawyer which will cost in the $300 to $500 an hour range. I just went through it and it's excruciatingly painful and expensive.

Then there is this:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/08/05/138934689/the-tuesday-podcast-the-patent-war