The Patent Mess

from the time-for-some-reform... dept

MSNBC is running yet another article that looks at problems with the patent system, focusing on the problem we most discuss around here: small intellectual property houses that buy up perfectly obvious patents, or those with prior art, and then go around threatening small sites to get them to pay up rather than fight the ridiculous patent. In most cases, the patent is for taking some sort of obvious action and moving it onto the internet. Even a strong defender of patent rights admits in the article that the "pendulum may have swung too far." No one is saying their shouldn't be patents, but there are way too many cases where these sorts of patents are clearly being used to hold back innovation - which is against the very point of the patent system.