Bernard Lang writes:
 >   - making prior art difficult to find is a deterrent to patenting,
 > and raises its cost through more expensive searches and insecurity as
 > to the actual existence of prior art.
 >     Expensive patents are economically more efficient, since people
 > will be less tempted to submit weak patents (there is economic
 > literature on this) ...
 >    and we wish to discourage patents.

The flaw in your theory is that patent authors have no incentive to
find prior art, and patent examiners do not have the time or
expertise.

I own 224 acres of land, the borders of which I have never walked the
entirety of, because some of them go through a wooded swamp.  Now, if
I was to post this land, the ownership of which is uncertain, and I
actualy posted someone else's land, I would be subject to a legal
penalty.

If a patent author claims prior art -- someone else's idea -- then are
not subject to any penalty other than the loss of their patent, which
they never owned anyway.

And finally, isn't "finding prior art" the same thing as "finding
prior open source code"?  How can we make the first hard without
harming the second?

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