Why patents will ruin the world

I've just finished reading that Gibson has extended its lawsuit against Activision to include Harmonix, MTV and the retailers that sell the game Guitar Hero. The patent in question is for "equipment to simulate a musical performance." Now this just makes me want to vomit. Patents were created so that innovation could flourish. Patents are meant to provide an inventor with an artificial monopoly in exchange for sharing his/her idea with the general public so that everyone will benefit and the creator will reap the rewards of his ingenuity. So where did this all go wrong?

The problem with patents today is that they're mostly mundane and trivial garbage. The patent system is rife with abuse, overrun with mountains of applications (sometimes causing two patents to be awarded for essentially the same thing) and full of speculators and campers who buy or file applications with the sole intent of sitting on them or suing large corporations who will inevitably create something similar. The recent suit against Research in Motion is case in point. The creator of the extremely popular Blackberry data phone was successfully sued for a wireless email patent infringement by a small company who specializes in buying existing patents, then suing large companies who are infringing upon them. Clearly this is not in the spirit in which the system was created and is a sad testament to the litigious nature of American society.

The video games industry has not been spared from this abuse. Patent filings from game developers and publishers have exploded over the past 10 years and show no signs of slowing down. This trend is stifling the innovative nature of the games industry as small developers fear stepping on the toes of larger competitors. Here's an example. Sega has a patent on using "ghost" opponents in a racing game. These are semi-transparent cars that can overlap with the player while he drives the track. If any other company ever wants to use this type of feature in a game they will be subject to licensing fees and possibly penalties. How does this help the game industry? How does this stimulate innovation? Clearly something is wrong with the status quo.

I believe in the value of the patent system, but its current state is far from its intended vision. Today patents aren't filed for monumental achievements like radio or the alternating current motor. They are filed for mundane enhancements to consumer products and even the very human genome. It's a perversion that cannot last.