The complexity of patenting software is often exponentially higher than other tangible inventions in the mechanical or electrical realms. Software patents require careful, precise claims and descriptions, way above what one typically finds in general “widgets”. Inventors should also bear in mind that there are relatively few attorneys in the United States that specialize in patent law.
Even fewer have experience in filing software patents. With the technology explosion driven largely by cloud computing and the Internet, many patent lawyers have jumped into this arena, eager to profit from this boom. The obvious result is that inventors often end up choosing a patent attorney ill-suited and ill-prepared to successfully file their idea with the USPTO. Even worse, the USPTO did not recognize a computer science degree as a qualifying discipline for patent attorneys. This created a perfect storm – something I go over in the video below.
