[sumtechguy]

The tools unfortunately are not good. As it is a wild mix of case law, actual law, and cherry picked venues. Then add into that different patent government/private regulatory bodies that enforce it unevenly, too much or not at all. Most of the companies I have worked at they had the process down pretty good. But if I remember right the average to get one was 2-3 years, with a few dozen rejections in there. Most of that was getting the verbiage right to make it sound unique and have proper claims. But if you wanted to make it easier for people to do it you would have to probably convince a patent attorney to help write it up and how to make it work, and defend it. This is not really a 'software' problem but more of a people/process/politics problem.