Patent examiners are clueless....
Dave,
Based on my recent experiences with US patent examiners, I would not expect them to do a thorough job.
As an example, I filed for a US patent early in 2006. It had 32 claims. I finally got a response late in 2007 and the examiner initially rejected 29 of the 32 claims, mostly based on what he stated was "obviousness to one skilled in the art" taking into account bits and pieces of 3 or 4 different patents. What was particularly frustrating was that the examiner's references had absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter contained in my application. Most of his objections were just fill-in-the-blank boiler plate responses. The logic and examples the examiner cited were, frankly, rather bizarre and incoherent. Regardless, I had to submit a costly response outlining where and why he was wrong.
I received another office action from the examiner a few months later, agreeing with most of my objections. So now he was going to allow 26 of my 32 claims, but he also had some additional objections to the remaining claims. At this point, I decided to give up and accept the 26 of 32 claims the examiner was going to allow. Mostly for financial reasons.
To make a long story short, the guys working as examiners at the US patent office are apparently not "the cream of the crop". For the most part, they're likely just federal office drones doing just enough not to get fired. Sad but true. And to make it worse, my patent attorney charges over $300/hr. to file responses to the sloppy paperwork these patent examiners generate.
That's my sad story, just so you don't feel alone.
Regards,
riff_raff