[matthewdgreen]

Patent examiners are given a relatively limited time/resource budget to examine applications. For that reason they will often reject early as a strategy [ETA: often, in my experience, with very weak "prior art" that basically matches some keywords], then allow more dedicated inventors to revise. This is mainly a filtering strategy, as best I can see. When your attorney quoted you $10K and suggested the patent would eventually be accepted, they were speaking as someone who understood the business and how the process would play out. It's surprising to me that you disregarded their advice and sunk $5K into the process only to walk away. Better to spend nothing than to waste $5K and get nothing from it.

[jjoonathan]

Your surprise comes from a perspective of understanding and trusting the process, presumably from experience. Is it really such a surprise that someone with a different experience -- that of extending trust and having it betrayed -- would find it hard to extend trust a second time?

And yeah, this system seems to be the worst of all worlds: needlessly punishing for small players and needlessly lucrative for large ones.

The patent system, as it is implemented, clearly behaves as an instrument of power, not an instrument for fixing incentives.

[matthewdgreen]

I'm not here to defend the patent system. But in general, patent lawyers are your guide to that system. If you don't trust your lawyer's instincts, by all means get a second opinion! But don't just ignore their advice.

[auggierose]

It's ridiculous that you have to spend $10K to patent your idea. Let's just get rid of all those patent office people and lawyers, and save everyone a lot of time and money.

[pclmulqdq]

The $10k is a feature, not a bug. Society shouldn't allow patents to be filed without commercial intent (because otherwise you are depriving the world of an idea for 20 years without meaningfully using it), and a $10k pricetag is a good signal of commercial intent. In the EU, patents have escalating fees to make sure that patent rights are only guaranteed as long as a commercial enterprise continues to be successful.

And no, the intent to file and then sell the patent is not a good "commercial intent."

[auggierose]

Which means that for rich people / patent trolls what society allows doesn't matter. Patents are definitely a bug, at least in software. Time to get rid of them.

[robertlagrant]

Patent examiners are given a relatively limited time/resource budget to examine applications

But they still take the money. If you take the money you should do a good job.

[jjeaff]

The $10k was his high end estimate. We thought we would try rolling the dice and see if we were getting anywhere. After the first $5k, it didn't look like we were going to luck out and end up on the low end.