What would you pay for a “Gold Plate” patent

Mark Lemley, the Stanford law professor that has been active in the patent reform movement, has proposed a “gold plate” patent in the past as a means for dedicating precious examiner resources to the inventions that matter and for diverting those resources from the inventions that don’t.  Under the Lemley proposal, “gold plate” patents would be entitled to the presumption of validity, while those receiving standard examination would carry a weakened or non-existent presumption.

Professor Lemley recently commented on his proposal, stating that “you ought to be able to buy yourself a really rigorous examination.“

There’s another way to introduce market forces into the examination process, of course….the Request for Examination system used by some other countries.  Under these systems, the filing of your application simply lodges it in the patent office…to receive examination, you must actually request it (which must be done within a certain time frame and must be accompanied by the appropriate fee).

It might be interesting to compare the effectiveness of the Lemley proposal v. a Request for Examination system.

Anyone out there looking for a law review topic?