If we are living in a world with patents (we are), it is good to see their benefits extended to the small guys as well as megacorps.
Personally, I think there are good patents and bad patents. The existing criteria are pretty good, but poorly applied. In particular, the difficulty is the obviousness test.
Patentable inventions should not be obvious to an expert in the field at the time of filing.
It is very difficult to assess what is novel/non-obvious after the fact. E.g. the wheel now seems an obvious solution to help move weight. Before it was invented, not so much.
One quibble, almost? everything is obvious to a bona fide expert in the field at the time of filing. The legal requirement is that something be non-obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the field.
I think we are both a little off. The test is for someone with with ordinary skill for someone practicing in the field, eg an ordinary mech engineer for a mechanical patent.
Everything is not obvious to an expert. There are actually hard problems that take time and effort to solve, even for experts.
Personally, I think there are good patents and bad patents. The existing criteria are pretty good, but poorly applied. In particular, the difficulty is the obviousness test.
Patentable inventions should not be obvious to an expert in the field at the time of filing.
It is very difficult to assess what is novel/non-obvious after the fact. E.g. the wheel now seems an obvious solution to help move weight. Before it was invented, not so much.