Are educational requirements for the patent bar out of date?
Right now, you typically need a degree in a physical science, biological science, or engineering to take the exam and become a patent agent.
Interestingly, Mathematics is specifically excluded as an acceptable background in the "non-acceptable coursework" section.
Now obviously I'm biased because I was a pure mathematics major, but it seems to me that this rule excludes a huge number of people who would be most capable of reviewing a massive new area of patents - namely, algorithms.
Technically, algorithms aren't patentable, which is probably why mathematics was excluded from the acceptable academic background list - Paul mentioned this when he wrote his "Are Software Patents Evil" essay...
"Unfortunately, patent law is inconsistent on this point. Patent law in most countries says that algorithms aren't patentable. This rule is left over from a time when "algorithm" meant something like the Sieve of Eratosthenes. In 1800, people could not see as readily as we can that a great many patents on mechanical objects were really patents on the algorithms they embodied..."
The patent bar has decided (for all practical purposes) that mathematics is patentable, but they continute to exclude people with a mathematics background.
I truly do not want to become a patent agent - but it does disturb me that the people who are licensed to "prosecute" (ie., file for) patents and/or "review" (ie., grant) patents on algorithms are specifically not supposed to have a math background.
Anyone care to comment or leave your thoughts on this?
(here's a link to the requirements doc: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/oed/grb0403.pdf)