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Patent examiners just provide advice. Even if the advice is negative, you can still be granted the patent.

The validity of any patent then has to be established by a judge in court.

I understand 'innocent until proven guilty,' but 'patentable until proven otherwise' makes no damn sense.

I agree with you. But it's important to understand that 'Patent granted' has no meaning at all.

This is entirely untrue. A patent that has been granted by the USPTO is deemed valid and binding unless decided otherwise in court or by a re-evaluation by the USPTO.

By your standard, patents are never meaningful, because a higher court (or the same court) could always invalidate the patent.

"Patent pending" doesn't have legal effect ( i think it's a warning to copycat-wannabes). "Patent granted" has lots and lots of meaning.

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