I agree that the number of patents granted every year should be relatively small. Concentrating on the issuing process, however, is only solving part of the pro

I agree that the number of patents granted every year should be relatively small. Concentrating on the issuing process, however, is only solving part of the problem. Even if we stopped issuing patents immediately, we'd still have 20 years of patent trolling. An equally bad (or perhaps worse) problem with all of this is that if you are the target of patent litigation, even winning the case will likely bankrupt you if you are an independent developer or small firm. I'd like to see much more reform around how patent cases are litigated - limit forum shopping, require the plaintiff to pay legal fees if they are an NPE and they lose the case, make PTO reviews quicker and less costly, etc... Side note: This issue is sort of related to all of the talk about smaller developers "selling out" - patent litigation is a huge, huge risk right now because our patent and court systems are so dysfunctional, and if I built something that was getting popular, selling out to a larger company is a pretty good defense against that.