There is an article by my colleague from the law school Scott Kief and Henry Smith arguing that there is no patent crisis. They don't have any data to back this up. They are very concerned about predictability. Here is a modest proposal: do away with patents - then it will be perfectly predictable, all litigation will fail. they do have some remedies - while I disagree with them about patents I think their remedies are generally better than those under discussion in Congress. In particular removing the presumption of patent validity seems a useful thing to do.

Granting anyone a 20 year monopoly on an entire branch of technology, or even a monopoly on the TYPE of data thats stored in a database is an outrage! Thinking that you can take any common act and tack "on the internet" to the end of it and its deemed an invention? Then it's time to get a po box in east Texas and start sending out subpoenas (and Joe Biden says "file sharing is "pure theft plain and simple").

It's no wonder internet start ups are opting to move off shore. Try telling a developing nation that their blooming business's cant expose a database to the internet without paying IBM for licensing that patent (that is actually one of IBM's patents BTW). The fact is, our idea patents are so ridiculous that their only really enforceable in the US and sometimes Canada. That means that we are literally hindering our ability to compete in a global economy since American companies expend so many resources in court that it detracts from implementing innovation.

Think about this, if you open a company in the U.S. you cant write a functional piece of software without infringing on hundreds of patents. So we HAVE to either accept the fact that they dont mean anything, and that a judge can invalidate the patent during the hearing OR abolish the notion that notions can be owned. If you look at older patents, they are very detailed and specific implementations of objects, such as a new trigger mechanism for a rifle. These days their would be one patent thats described as "A device, mechanism or procedure to initiate a chain reaction resulting in... " basically the concept of a trigger where in ALL triggers of any kind are covered. It's a damn shame. Patents were supposed to be the equivalent of copyright for tangibles.

If you don't think that the US has a patent crisis, you probably don't "believe" in global warming or evolution... it's just a fact, now what are going to do about it?

I believe there is global warming, in spite of the fact that global temperature averages this year have dropped by enough to take us back 100 years. I definitely believe in evolution. I do not believe the sky is falling and that we have a [undefined] patent crisis.

Speaking of Global warming in relevance to the patent crisis, how about putting together eco-friendly technology and driving innovation to meet both to provide with green tech and patents.

Just to put a note; in case you or your readers are interested to know more on green/alternate/clean energy with relevance to IP - here's a good report on Solar Photovoltaic Cells from a Market & IP Perspective in the Kansas City Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/prnewswire/press_releases/national/India/2009/07/21/UKM025

To be fair, the approach Kieff and Smith propose (Remove the presumption of patent validity, Institute symmetric fee shifting, Equity in remedies) would be a step in the right direction, compared to current IP law. At the very least, their approach would provide disincentives for patent trolling and certain types of excesses. In particular removing the presumption of patent validity seems a useful thing to do.

I agree that their approach does not solve all problems. It is but a first step, and still open for other meaningful improvements.

But at the same time, I understand their inclination to be conservatively cautious. They feel that doing away with patents is like throwing away the baby with the bathwater. Simply going from one extreme (excessive IP) into the other (no patents whatsoever) might simply replace one set of problems with another set of problems.