Historical Patent Activity: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/h_counts.htm http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/h_counts.ht... From

Historical Patent Activity: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/h_counts.htm http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/h_counts.ht... From the OP: "The explosion of litigation we are seeing is a reflection of how the patent system wires us for innovation," Kappos said. "It's natural and reasonable that innovators would seek to protect their breakthroughs using the patent system." Or maybe...it is natural to file patents as fast as possible to protect ourselves from an increasingly broken system? It'd be nice if companies could be restricted on the number of patents they could file per year. Let's say a company with 1-10 people can file 1 patent per year. 11-100 people => 5 patents per year. 101-1000 people => 10 patents per year. 1001-10000 people => 50 patents per year.... Then maybe companies would only file their most important "breakthroughs." Of course, this system would mean that we would have fewer patent prosecution lawyers, and maybe even fewer examiners.