The I Shing's Journal: Patent analogy

Sometimes an image comes to mind when I think about big issues like corporate giants battling over patents.

When I was reading about the battle over the JPEG patent issues, what came to mind was an image of the USPTO being a tiny ice cream truck that drives slowly around suburban neighborhoods handing out weapons-grade plutonium.

I hate being one of those guys who whinges on about the originl intentions of the Founding Fathers, but I'm really sure that if they knew how the patent system was going to be used they'd never have implemented it.

When I think of an overworked, underfunded government agency handing out broad exclusive rights to basic technologies left and right to pretty much anyone willing to pay the application fees, it makes me want to pull my own head off.