[EGreg]

What if the eolas patent didn't lack this? What if it really was the first one to submit a $400 patent application in which it describes how things will work in a "browser", some technology that will support those things only a few years from now? Under current patent law, merely submitting a patent application lets you prevent anyone from actually implementing this for 20 years.

In 2005, if I knew that touchscreens would get small enough to work on iPhones, could I spend $4k for 10 patents just to cover all kinds of things you can do with touchscreens on mobile phones? I would have a component there labeled "touchscreen", even though such a thing didn't exist yet. Then, when they finally got small enough and phones got produced, I could use this patent to charge apple and other companies any amount I wanted for the license, through the doctrine of equivalents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_equivalents