Also read:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/how-a-rogue-appeals-court-wrecked-the-patent-system/
Having this discussion about resistance to change in regards to higher education with my wife yesterday (NPR had some piece on online alternatives). There's too much money in the entrenched system. At least with edu, if the timing is right, something revolutionary and not evolutionary will come about, when society is willing to accept alternative forms of employability to diplomas. I expect/hope this by the time I have college-age children. I have a moral problem with paying a lot of money for a marginal increase in educational value, and incurring that debt. Just feeds the system.
With patents, the system is protected by a misguided, lobbied government, and I don't see a way out until new-generation tech companies (Google and newer) put the same muscle into lobbying that the old guard does. Or, as with Aereo or MP3 players, one industry goes up against another. Economic interest is going to get it done, nothing else.
