To do what exactly? The federal government created this problem with its asinine patent policies over the past few decades. Do you think all three branches of government will suddenly overhaul this because its upsetting some people in technology? Think of all the lobbying that makes sure this doesn't happen. I also think companies like Google, Apple, and MS play up the "evil patent" narrative but privately like the power their own patent portfolios have over competitors. Either as a defensive tactic or, sometimes, as an offensive one. These companies have also written the "Litigation will cost this much" letter against others many, many times. They're not against the patent system because it works in their favor almost exclusively. The exception are these patent trolls, which usually get shot down in court or get settled for a fee that's very affordable to big players. In fact, I'd go as so far to say that a lot of the press and "grassroots" anger towards patent trolls come via these companies' PR departments. They hate patent trolls but they do not want to give up on their own patent abuses and want to indoctrinate you into that belief system (Google/MS/Apple patents good, everyone else bad).
I can't see any realistic reform here. Its not even an issue in this or the past few elections. I suspect this is going to be the status quo for a very long time. The system as-is serves big companies and the government.
I agree change is not coming in the political front. Lobbying power defending the patent status quo is enormous, and reviewing Patent Law isn't in any political agendas.
Big tech companies take advantage of the system. Microsoft has made billions of dollars out of licensing Android related patents, Apple applied for a paper bag patent recently and Google has "patent parties" when (as I have been told by Google friends) they encourage engineers to work with attorneys in filing patents on anything they worked on that could be patentable.
To some extent, it has happened. Alice vs. CLS Bank killed a lot of software related patents. And post-grant administrative proceedings at the USPTO are killing patents at around an 85% rate for 1/10 the cost of a district court litigation.
I can't see any realistic reform here. Its not even an issue in this or the past few elections. I suspect this is going to be the status quo for a very long time. The system as-is serves big companies and the government.