How do patent officers judge novelty or obviousness? I mean, I find a loop obvious, but a non-programmer applying it to another domain might consider it novel, even if it&#x27;s not to me.<p>The answer: they can&#x27;t, it&#x27;s all subjective to the examiner, and the examiner has an incentive yo eventually pass the patent. Then it has to go through an expensive court case where only a patent troll wins because they threaten lawsuits which some companies can&#x27;t afford, even if the patent is bullshit, or nobody wins as the patent troll doesn&#x27;t succeed, but no or inadequate costs are awarded to the defendant.