This is a difficult problem to solve...
I can't think of a solution that is going to be wholly tenable to both sides, unfortunately.
I mean, on the one side, as a patent examiner, you want plenty of time to the appropriate due-diligence in order that you can be sure you have taken all reasonable precautions when a decision on the application is made.
On the other side, if you are a company that has literally spent millions, maybe billions, developing a technology, you want your patent as quickly as possible so that you can put your product on the market and begin to recoup the costs.
On that note: A note to corporations: We should not lose sight of what patents were originally invented for. They were invented to allow a company/individual an opportunity to recoup development costs. That's the entire point of a patent. They are not there (or, at least, it was never the intention) to provide profit-making opportunities through technological monopolies. Though of course, it's inevitable that that would happen.
Apple and your "rounded edges" on mobile phones: I'm looking at you, you total twats.
We're between a rock and a hard place on patents, it seems.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
