Toerless Eckert wrote:
Please don't forget that the requirement is just "non-obviousness" for the
typical person working in the field.
Side note: I think I've been told (by patent lawyers) that it's non-obviousness
for a skilled, even expert practicioner in the field.
Just split the money someone pays for a patent application equally
between the patent lawer and the patent office and make both of them get less
the longer it takes.
Can't be done--at least, not in the US. A lawyer is hired by the applicant. It
more or less has to be that way; a lawyer is someone I hire to represent me, to
speak for me in the complex language of the law. To keep me from hiring whoever
I want to speak for me might well be unconstitutional; it would certainly run
against the common-law tradition (tracing back, oh, 500-100 years). The Roman
Republic had such a system; only designated people could bring a legal action,
and they could only use prescribed forms of language. It was a wonderfully
designed form of job security; but it wasn't justice.
--
/================================================================\
|John Stracke | http://www.ecal.com |My opinions are my own. |
|Chief Scientist |===============================================|
|eCal Corp. |We want forty million helicopters and a dollar!|
|francis(_at_)ecal(_dot_)com|--"Dinosaurs" |
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