The patent office can strike down a lot of obviously conflicting patents, reducing load on the courts. Patents were created to promote innovation. That hasn't

The patent office can strike down a lot of obviously conflicting patents, reducing load on the courts. Patents were created to promote innovation. That hasn't been working effectively in the world of software. The idea was, in exchange for sharing your idea, the government will protect you. So, you get some profit and a head start, and everyone else gets to build upon your idea after some period of time. Tech giants like Google lately are not enforcing many useful and innovative patents. They create them as a defense. That says something about their view of software patents. If you're asking for my opinion on patent reform, I'd drop the term on software patents way lower, like 3-5 years. That's enough time to generate a customer base for the filer and allow others with the same idea to have a chance to compete within his or her lifetime. I can't speak for other fields. I would not agree that software patent reform means everything needs to be shut down.