Senate Nears Final Vote on Patents

I'm sorry, the notion that this somehow levels the playing field is completely wrong. It's very difficult for a layperson to file a patent properly, in the proper legalese and keep track of all the necessary actions. This bill definitely opens up patents to large corporations and patent holding companies that can essentially throw teams of lawyers at particular fields.

After spending 5 years and more money than I'd like to admit on our patent that has still yet to be awarded I can tell you from personal experience that every response is cryptic, and the necessary follow-up actions are extensive and intensive. Furthermore, if they're not written in the proper legalese you have even less of a chance.

This is yet another boon to large corporations and their lawyers. Now that companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft don't have to worry about prior-art we'll see innovation slow to a crawl, and startups will have even less of a chance of disrupting the status quo as a lawsuit won't be too far behind. I can see it now, We demand you shutdown as you're infringing on the patent we were recently awarded, it won't matter that you were already operating. They can simply pay extra fees, get a faster approval and you're gone. This is supposed to be progress and improvement? Only to the lobbyists and their employers.

I'm so tired of the whole thing, I'm not even keeping track of it anymore. Reform these days(1) has just become doublespeak for "like it is now, only more so". Status_quo++.

They're going to do what they're going to do. Its going to be the opposite of what would be best for us, and we'll find a way to work around it.

(1)I think perhaps this is the way its always been, and I was just too young to notice.

Does the Senate seriously think THIS is the sort of reform we need in the patent system? Are they that out of touch?

The article itself isn't much better, it barely touches on the real problems in patent law.

If prior art doesn't matter, what stops anyone from patenting someone else's publicly known invention and then suing them?

This is basically an abdication of any attempts at making certain a patent is valid on the part of the PO.

Their job will be reduced to simply checking that the format and wording is in order and making sure there's a timestamp.

From my limited understanding, if you simply submit a application, you are protected until it is reviewed plus the time granted with a patent. So if you pay the new smaller amount, and it takes the PO 5 years to review your patent instead of the normal 1 for corporations, you'll have an extra 4 years of protection over the life of the patent. Clock starts once it's reviewed and accepted, but protection starts once it's filed. Depending on how much cheaper this is for small businesses, it could potentially help them out by offering longer protection for less money, if only because it takes longer for their patents to be reviewed.

But I think I agree with asnyder for the most part. Most people don't even know where to start, and may lose protection simply because they didn't know what to do before the idea spread and someone else with the know-how made the product and patented it.

What would it take to DDOS the patent office?