I understand the the reasoning behind obviousness...when it applies fairly.

BUT...when the PTO needs to take one from Column A and one from Column B to make a cake that's bitter in taste....then I "fall off the bandwagon" with the PTO.

And yes, I agree, the more they can achieve a beneficial status the more they push for the obviousness claim.

BUT... where does it stop? Do you keep taking patents for 10 different widgets and say the person who has all ten widgets in a patent to accomplish something that has never been patented before is denied his right of patent for the fact that any well trained widget user would have put these 10 together to make the patented item.esp. if it something never accomplised before?

If it keeps up this way the ingeniusness of this country and the entreprenurial spirit will just be passe' and others around the world will just sit back look for what the PTO denies as protected and just copy-cat it for their own manufacturing and export base.....and of course use their cheap unprotected labor and cry of free trade to support their profits.

I apologize for being on my soapbox here, but this is one of the main problems investing in a company like PTSC has for the masses. We're never sure that anything we invent will be scuttled by worldwide competition and as it turns out our worst hurdle to climb is internal in our federal offices.

If you want to write to someone to fix our problems with the company and the PPS...maybe the person who should be receiving a ton of letters is the director of the patent office and those who sit on Capitol Hill.

Sorry for the rant...JMHO