Introduction

Whilst amongst a group of postgraduate IP students, I made a statement which I thought was relatively non-controversial: that getting patent protection was not too difficult. The law students, almost as one, let out a groan of dispute which clearly suggested that they considered me wrong. Is this a view that most lawyers hold? Perhaps more comfortable with the substantive law of patenting rather than the technology being discussed – noting the seeming highly technical nature of the patent specifications and concluding that it must ‘all be very difficult’ indeed? It is not clear why the students viewed patent examination as such a significant hurdle to overcome.