[MIT-Elephant]

Patents per se are an important part of a civilized society, one of the essential bureaucracies even of a free-market society.

As with many things in America, lawyers have screwed this one up. Too many patents issued for too much minutiae; conversely, preposterous ‘concept patents’ on nebulous things. Too many companies/people intimidated by patent lawyers and not getting their day in court.

Not to mention you don’t actually have to build it to get the patent. That way you can sue (lawyers, again) when someone else figures out how to make it/make it work.

[gpapa]

It is not only lawyers who have screwed things up in regard to patent and anti-trust laws, numerous Congresses over the years have made these laws into a tangled mess. Its just another example of your politicians pandering to their favorite organizations or companies. The politicos and their lawyer allies have forgotten the simple words in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which says in part; To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries