[maratd]

Things are already complex enough to the point where even a very good lawyer barely grasps how things work. The latest example is the Redhat scenario. They hit Redhat, Redhat swings pack with a GPL violation. I guarantee you that the GPL never came up in conversation when they were considering suing Redhat.

We just need to make things even more complex until lawyers absolutely cannot predict the outcome of litigation. At that point enforcing patents can become a dangerous proposition.

[rapind]

Complexity is an advantage for the existing elite. The more complex you make patent law, the harder it will be to defend against if you're a small fish with limited resources.

IMO complexity through abstraction enables most of the evil in the world.

[maratd]

> Complexity is an advantage for the existing elite.

This is true, but until a point. Eventually if a system becomes complex enough, it must collapse. The elite are still human and they still have limitations. Even now, no lawyer is capable of committing the entire body of law responsible for the patent system to memory, nevermind actually grasping all of it.

> The more complex you make patent law, the harder it will be to defend against

The more complex the system, the more contradictions it contains. The more contradictions for you to exploit.

On the contrary, if we had an extremely simplistic system, the small fish would just be told NO with no recourse. Today, they can find reason after reason to counter-sue, appeal, file forms, etc.

Mind you, I'm only a fan of bureaucracy when I'm trying to destroy a particular system.