Excellent post Wolf.  Wouldn't it be funny if the patent reform act created such a backlash that it had the opposite effect that it had intended after all is said and done?  215,000 engineers is a giant force to be reckoned with.  I work with and have friends that are on the cutting edge in several industries.  Engineers don't typically have much to say.  They go about their business and tweak and improve and sometimes stumble upon breakthroughs of great significance.  They expect to be compensated when those planets line up in such a way - not necessarily in cold hard cash but in recognition in the way of mention in an obscure patent or 3 or 20 in their careers and maybe a token of appreciation from management at their companies.  The current system keeps these guys going more than a knothead senator from one state or a bonehead congressman from another will ever realize.  Maybe this "Patent Reform" will awaken this great collective force for innovation and will be a call to arms for them.  That would be too funny.