Coming up with relevant criteria to determine the triviality of a software patent application doesn't seem simple at all. This means you need to hire experts in

Coming up with relevant criteria to determine the triviality of a software patent application doesn't seem simple at all. This means you need to hire experts in the field. This is where it gets interesting. In most regulatory organizations where a high amount of expertise is required (like economics) you see a lot of corruption where companies hire out of and into these organizations specifically for the benefits of having representation on the inside. I.e. Henry Paulson. So unless you have a good way of preventing these employees from ever working for Microsoft / Facebook / Apple / Google etc. then it's really not going to work out as intended. IMO, just get rid of software patents. Sure it'll suck for some, but overall it's probably healthier for the industry. Plus it's nice and simple and doesn't employ a whole mess of lawyers.