[galenward]

My argument is based on the premise that most software patents are bad for our economy.

Amazon's One-Click patent is a perfect example. Amazon would have developed one-click whether or not it was patentable. By granting the patent, we granted Amazon a monopoly and didn't get anything in return.

I LOVE the shorter patent idea - particularly for software patents. It wouldn't work for pharma, but that's okay.

[prodigal_erik]

The monopoly is supposed to be compensation for disclosing how the invention works, not merely creating it. If one-click were so amazingly hard that nobody else could have done it for another twenty years, we might have derived some benefit. But when any of us could do the same in hours, the patent is merely obfuscated drivel.