Advertise - Dubious patent quality
Official patent criteria are not respected by jurisprudence of pattent offices
Novelty
Art. L611-11 IPC: An invention shall be considered to be new if it does not form part of the state of the art. The state of the art shall be held to comprise everything made available to the public (any person not held by contract to confidentiality) by means of a written or oral description, by use or in any other way, before the date of filing of the patent application.
Inventivity
Art. L611-14 IPC: An invention shall be considered to involve an inventive step if, having regard to the state of the art, it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art.
Anteriority research is quite difficult with softwares
- No documentary database (in other engineering sciences, people consign their manufactoring processes carefully)
- No access to closed source code (which is encourage by the patent system)
- More over, handbooks and instructions are seldom accessible online
The patent system is like a lottery
The Economist (1990, September the 15th) compares the patent system to a "time-consuming lottery" because only a tiny fraction of patents brings any benefit to those who actually hold the patents.