Patent process -- how involved is it?

[AJ_Katz]

A faculty member in my department has not had a research or technical publication since 2021 and is citing all of their work to get a US, Canadian, and UK patent on their invention.  They initially filed a patent back 2020 and 2016 and are telling me that the review process for their patent is essentially the same as publishing a peer-reviewed paper but that there is a back-and-forth process over an extended period of time.  I've looked up this person's patent and trademark application documents and, honestly, I just don't get how this could take that much time.  They're working with a patent lawyer on their own because our institution did not want to pursue the patent with them (which, to me, says that they don't see a high value potential).  I just don't see how this could really be that time consuming of a process and feel like they're just blowing smoke to cover the fact that they're just not working much and using my lack of experience with the patent process to hoodwink me.  Is the patent process really that involved?  How much effort is it compared to publishing a peer-reviewed paper?  Someone with experience, please let me know.   

[pgher]

If it's a good patent, legitimately novel and non-obvious, I would say the work involved is similar to a journal article. Most of the time is spent waiting. If there's a LOT of back and forth, it's probably not really novel and they're struggling to carve out valid claims. Or, they have a crappy lawyer.

[AJ_Katz]

If it's a good patent, legitimately novel and non-obvious, I would say the work involved is similar to a journal article. Most of the time is spent waiting. If there's a LOT of back and forth, it's probably not really novel and they're struggling to carve out valid claims. Or, they have a crappy lawyer.

And so if someone is pursuing a patent on the same thing in three countries, is it valid to say that is 3x the effort?  And what about a trademark on the name of their product?  Should each of these items count as effort equal to 1 peer-reviewed publication?  I find this difficult to envision.  This person has already published a technical report in a trade journal on the item, so it really just feels like double dipping and a stretch to think this could be defended as the sum total of published products over three years for 30% research appointment on a full-year appointment. One of the tactics that this person used when defending this effort in my review meeting with them was, "Have you ever gone through the patent process?  It's a lot of work."  I'm just not sure I buy this. 

[Ruralguy]

The "its a lot of work" excuse is really pretty much a last bastion of someone who knows they have no case.  I've heard that from more or less every faculty member or student who doesn't get high marks for something that took them some (more or less average) amount of time.

[pgher]

Trademarks are non-trivial, but just barely. It's like one form.

Patenting in multiple countries can be more work. US vs. European are qualitatively different format, so there is some work in translating the concepts. Certainly less work than creating from scratch. More like the amount of work you would do to take a rejected journal article and revise it for a journal with a different publisher. Nationalizing patents into European countries is work for the lawyer and translator, not for the inventor.

Overall, I'd call BS on all of their claims.