Timothy Lee at Ars Technica reminds us that the Patent Reform Act of 2007 is being debated behind closed doors in the Senate, after already passing in the House link here. He concludes that the bill is of little help compared to the long list of problems with patent law as currently experienced by business. And not even the modest proposals under consideration seem likely to go much farther, given the seemingly balanced alignment of business forces on opposing sides who see their interests hurt by one aspect of the legislation or another. Lee seems to think that the Supreme Court may be the most likely source of important changes.

Read the post for the details. But reconciling the differences on the opposing sides seems no solution to the monopolies that current patent law has created, at enormous cost to the consumer and imperceptible increases in innovation. We have simply failed to create real anger among the public who have been taught for generations that patents embedded in the constitution are good for them.