> the USPTO's idiosyncratic usage of non-obviousness doesn't really match my intuition
Remember that USPTO gets paid for each patent application, and not penalised when it's later falsified.
Remember that USPTO gets paid for each patent application, and not penalised when it's later falsified.
Programmers are notoriously good at documenting everything after all. /s
It's easy to give documentary evidence for things someone found self-evident and so only wrote a scribbled note about in a workbook 40 years ago. /s
FWIW patent law obviousness is not the same thing as ordinary notions of obviousness either.
All my personal opinion, ofc.