Who cares about prior art? – there is a huge archive of patents from Soviet Union – examples include Light Emitting Diodes patented in the twenties, to all sorts of technologies “invented” and patented 50 years later in the US and the EU.

Obviously the patent office could not be expected to study archives of every single country, especially previously closed Moscow archives, however, there should be a simple online appeal possess to invalidate issued patents based on reputable evidence of prior art that would not involve a team of expensive lawyers. Shame that this will never happen, as it would “harm the commercial interests of taxpaying companies”

US patent rules only care for US prior art. If prior art exists anywhere else in the world, then it doesn't count.

within a radius of 5 miles from my flat in Vilnius there are probably about 50 gajillion LPs recorded by soviet musicians that are total ripoffs of western popular music. Swap them for an LED patent? :)