Policy makers are influenced by public opinion.  Lately, we have read in the press about “patent trolls” and how the entire patent system needs to be overhauled.  A litigation nightmare.  You can’t make anything anymore without infringing on something someone says they own.  All these patents are making it hard for manufacturing to survive.  <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />China doesn’t respect patents and that puts US mfg at a disadvantage. Blah blah blah.

Has anyone heard any defense of patents.  That intellectual property is a property to be protected same as any other property.  This protection of property rights must be extended to all property owners, not just the large and/or wealthy.  If policy makers heard an outcry, received letters urging them not to relax their vigilance of patent protection, but to increase it world wide.  Blather blather blather. Off soap box.