[shasta]

> a company who is interested in patenting any ideas their engineers come up with is somehow evil

No, not at all. I'm blaming the patent system, not the company. I see the potential benefits of patents as:

1. Research is pursued because of an economic incentive that would not exist if it were not patentable.

2. Research is disclosed that would not be disclosed were it not protected by patent.

You seem to think 2 is more the point of patents than 1, but I don't think that's either historically accurate (both were reasons as of the writing of the constitution) or that it's playing out in practice today.

The cost of patents is obstructing / taxing innovators, particularly when they didn't benefit from the patent they're infringing. With the dials set where they are right now, I think the cost of software patents greatly exceeds their benefits.