[Anne P. Mitchell, Esq.]
the guys at the USPTO can't know everything, and it is
not their job to know everything
It seems to me it *IS* the job of a patent examiner to know everything
in their assigned subject area, or at least to know enough about a
subject to be able to research patent claims quickly and accurately.
This is how the system is supposed to work.
The problem, of course, is one of economics: the USPTO cannot pay
subject matter experts the required market rates to be examiners, so the
patent examiners we have are probably not truly subject matter experts.
To be effective (especially when dealing with a subject as broad as
software patents), the USPTO needs true experts as examiners. This will
cost a lot more money than the USPTO gets now. So to fix the system, the
cost of patent applications should go up dramatically. Which means only
moneyed persons or corporations will be able to get patents.
It's a no-win situation for inventors, unless the USPTO can get it's
federal funding drastically increased. But the moneyed people and
corporations control all the congressional lobbyists, so it's budget
will never be drastically increased.
To be fair, Microsoft probably would have paid a lot to have a thorough
and accurate examination before the Eloas patent was granted. But you
can't have the corporations requesting and contesting patents funding
the examination process.
-Ryan-