How about if a small company was to invent the iphone and patent it, would that be a good thing?
Isn't the idea of patents suppose to encourage novelty and protect those who bring it forward?

Now Apple has accomplished the iphone and not some small company that would easily be trampled by a huge corp. Now what? make two sets of rules for large and small companies?
Patents are the price we pay for our way of life where everyone wants the new shiny thing. If patents were not around most of the things we now take for granted around us would simply not be.

Announcements like this prove that more attention is being paid for alternative means of producing energy. When a gallon of gas cost a buck no one cared about alternative energy sources. Now is a good time for such initiatives to get the spotlight. Only if major investments are made will there be a chance of finding alternative energy sources. Clearly very little effort has been invested in this area but it looks like things might change.