Patent Gridlock Suppresses Innovation

trichard writes: L. Gordon Crovitz gives us this editorial about how broad, vague patents cause more harm than good. Interestingly, it's published in one of the most traditional media sources, the Wall Street Journal. Here's an excerpt: "It's true that defining intellectual property is hard at a time when new technologies upset the traditional ways of protecting rights, as debates over digital piracy make clear. But in the case of patents, poorly defined property rights for inventions are leading even the biggest companies to take desperate measures, including banding together to protect themselves against claims of increasingly broad and vague patents."