Well, That Didn’t Take Long

So, less than 24 hours after I wrote that “sometimes the day is not complete without a column … about how our patent system is malfunctioning and not performing its goal of ‘promoting innovation,’” we have this insipid entry from the Wall Street Journal and Andy Kessler.  The piece is a fairly predictable diatribe, but I really don’t feel like subjecting myself to News Corp spam just to set Mr. Kessler straight. According to Kessler, “Clearly we’d be better off having Microsoft, Apple and Google spending $1 billion on developing new products rather than buying up patents.” Unfortunately, I can’t see into alternate dimensions of our universe the way Kessler can, so I’ll just have to take his word for it that rewarding the creators of, and those smart enough to invest in, the technology we fundamentally rely on today won’t have a positive effect by encouraging tomorrow’s creators and investors to keep doing their thing . . .