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Could You Really Do Better than the USPTO?
lllama asks; "Is there such a thing as an obvious patent? Some ideas are so obvious that they needed to be stated before it's clear how obvious they are. Some are so blindingly simple that maybe a few dead monkeys might not have thought of them first. How would one go about deciding which ideas deserve a patent? Could/Should the patent office open itself up for public voting or moderation? Could a voting system affect how long a patent is grated for? Should the system be allowed to be swayed by public opinion? Should there be another tier of patents that protect IP but cannot be licensed out for money (BSD style patents?)? Given that simply hearing an idea affects how obvious it appears, could a system be devised that would allow an unbiased measure? An Obvious Quotient as such. Is there an obvious other word for 'obvious' that I could be using?"
Mod all SCO patents (-1, Redundant)
Every cloud has a silver lining (except for the mushroom shaped ones, which have a lining of Iridium & Strontium 90)
USPTO begins using Slashcode.
Some of the first patents issued under the new system:
I think just buying them a computer and maybe one of those free AOL discs would quite suffice. And maybe some training in using Google (and thereby also enforcing the belief that a search engine has already been invented.)
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!