some patents are not a Bad Thing. patenting obvious things like one click shopping is a Bad Thing. Patenting the 'feel' of a program [a lawsuit about this was fought between lotus and corel years ago about lotus notes and corels similar product] is also bad. Some things are not, such as hardware patents, and true innovation. Patents should be reviewed by people that know technology [no, not the creator of the internet 'Al Gore'] but people that work in patent law and also have cs background.. that's what i think anyway.