Stardate 20010703.1217 (On Screen): The government of Australia has, for some unfathomable reason, instituted a second kind of patent which is more informal and less binding, which costs less and doesn't require a lawyer to draft the application. It involves less scrutiny at the patent office. It's streamlined, efficient, and remarkably vulnerable to abuse, as a patent lawyer there just demonstrated. He filed a patent for a "circular transportation facilitation device" which was granted.
Our hero was just issued a patent for the wheel. (I think we can safely assume that this can be challenged on the basis of "prior art".) Of course, he wasn't serious about it; his goal was to point out the flaws in this new system, which I think he has now adequately done.
The patent system all over the world is stressed to the breaking point, and Australia was apparently looking for a solution on-the-cheap. There isn't one. In the case of the US patent office, one thing that needs to be done is for the US Government to permit it to keep and spend all the money it collects on registration fees, which is supposedly what those fees are for. That will permit it to staff up, which will help the problem a great deal. (discuss)
