Kim Weatherall responds to Jason's op-ed on the broken patent system: "[The] fact that people are developing patents to license, or that patents have 'licensing value' is not the problem. It is the behaviour that Schultz points to that is the problem. And the policy problem is how do you draft a law that can differentiate between 'good' licensing behaviour and 'bad' licensing behaviour?"

Update: "Jason points out to me that his argument is more specific to software and internet patents, and to the bankruptcy scenario - and indeed it is, when you read the article. And my comments above should not be read as saying that Jason's points are invalid - they are perfectly valid, and the kinds of situations he outlines do seem to defeat, or circumvent, the purposes of the patent system.

That still leaves the hard questions, of course."