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(Unverified)Nov 2nd 2006 6:32PM

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The problem is, with patents specifically it's really, really hard to get somebody with enough expertise in the field to know if it's something that one brilliant mind plucked from the ether, or whether it's just something any competent person would arrive at on their own. I once saw a "valid" patent for what was basically "Downloading an MP3". Seriously. People write these things to be so obtuse yet so broad, and when they get through the review, they can cover ten times more stuff than the original "innovation". There was a time when patents were usually good -- I think they were first applied to drugs ("Patent Medicine") -- but at this point, most seem to be a way for big companies with deep pockts to play "Patent Troll" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll).

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