William Couture wrote:

>> They are relying upon the courts to defend -- and vet -- patents now.
>> At most they do a simple keyword search.
> 
> Do you have a source for that?

Not in so many words, of course.

Former workers have complained that they are evaluated not on the
quality of job, but the rate of output.  That the amount of searching to
compare to previous patents or existing works is downplayed, and there
is no required level of actual searching work needed.  In fact, if a PTO
worker choose to use "google" as their only source, they can't even do
that, since for most of them the raw, unfiltered internet is blocked.

--Michael
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist