I understand the profit motive and everything, but SO many of these "patents" are all about processes and ideas that could easily be thought of independently by Joe Average or Small Company X...
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2004/06/64038
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2004/06/64038?currentPage=2
Quote
...The EFF's Schultz hopes this process will help get rid of some bad patents, educate the public about the process of challenging them and protect Internet-based expression technologies.
"The consensus is that a lot of bad patents are leaking through the cracks of the examination process," he said. "We feel ... the ones that we've targeted here are not only invalid, but are being abused."
Gee, I wonder if the patent office's process of examining/re-examining IP patents is... patented? ;)
And hey look here's a company (http://www.acaciatechnologies.com/patentportfolio.htm) that SPECIALIZES in limiting free speech etc. ::)
(innovation-blocking "Willful Ignorance Of Prior Art (http://w2.eff.org/patent/)", indeed)