patents under review tomorrow

the supreme court is hearing arguments tomorrow for a potentially important patent case. the case will test the idea that one can patent a combination of earlier inventions and call it novel and non-obvious.

patents in silicon valley right now are mostly a joke. the patent office awards pretty much anything. and the test of obviousness is ridiculously lax. i have three awarded patents, and in the process of writing and submitting them it became clear pretty quickly that the patent office just lets the courts decide the relative merit of obviousness. but that leads to an environment of uncertainty and litigation, which i think goes against the goal of encouraging innovation. sure, it’s hard to judge obviousness. that’s a pretty subjective measure. but most of the patents i’ve read really would be fairly obvious to any computer science student. i’d suggest the patent office only award things that are really stellar. the kind that you read and think, “wow, great idea”.

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