[gsb]

You may be right about the patent office, and that would be OK by me. But for those who say that only some patents are a problem, it leaves open a nice incentive to make that distinction real. All it means is that the USPTO suffer for their own errors of judgement rather that foisting that suffering onto others.

If instead you punish those defeated at trial, there are many who say that this is unfair to small players who cannot afford to make as strong a case as the really rich companies. I personally don't see this as such a great problem as they should be doing something more constructive than filing lawsuits, but I think holding the patent office accountable does not favour large players to the same degree.