RE: [xml-dev] Is the USPTO run by knaves or fools? - was Re: [xml -dev] US Patent 6,687,897

>Patenting in US is much more affordable, whereas patenting in countries
>like Japan are much more expensive.

A corollary of this affordability of a patent in the US is the increasing
business practice of defensive patents, in which you come up with something
kind of new, and patenting it is cheaper and easier than proving, if someone
else patents something similar later, that you did it first and aren't
infringing on that patent. 

This and other factors like the dot com gold rush mentality have lead to
huge workloads for the USPTO. As I understand it, their productivity is
measured by patents granted, so their bias will be in favor of granting
something. Also, because they don't have the resources to look at everything
really carefully, there's an assumption that anyone who cares deeply about
specific details will hash out those parts in front of a judge when they
fight it out in court later. So it's really a matter of passing the buck
because of an overload of work, but it obviously gives an unfair advantage
to those with big legal budgets.

Bob