Will we now have to suffer the stupidly low standard of patent awards and missing of obvious 'prior art' that the US has inflicted on themselves (and thus the world) for so long?

This is the last thing we need! Patents are bad enough as it is.

Brilliant - another US/UK measure wherein we give up all rights to follow our esteemed leaders in the colonies.

I can only think that this will kill off whatever is left of British innovation and will subsume the United Kingdom in much the same way that our unilateral extradition treaty doesn't work for us.

God Bless our well-informed .gov and God help the rest of us; 51st State, here we come.

I'm sorry, but the UK will never be the 51st State of the U.S. That "honor" belongs to Iraq. You and Australia may battle it out to see who gets to be the 52nd State and who gets to be the 53rd State.

The broken nature of our patent system is seriously disturbing, especially when you consider it's sole objective is to promote innovation. Well, I guess it has promoted innovation in a manner of speaker. Innovation of courtroom antics should count as innovation, just not good innovation.

Personally, I think all patents should have to go through a committee (not a single "examiner" [or even a few]), wherein that committee is made up of people in the industry the patent is sought for. So if it's an IT-related patent, it should have to pass through an IT committee. If it's a medical-related patent, it should have to pass through a medical committee. If it's a machining-related patent, it should have to pass through a machinist committee. That's the only way to pass the "obvious" test. Because something obvious to someone skilled in an industry will be complete gibberish to someone not in that industry. Which, I think, is the cause of so many bogus patents.

"Patent Prosecution Highway" or "Piss-Poor Handling"?

every one knows Canada is the 51st state

The last thing we need is faster patent processing. Bring in the speed bumps, the donkey carts and the perpetually nagging old hag to slow it all down and make sure a patent is actually worth the paper it's written on !