For a level headed and well informed assessment of the importance of patents to American inventors, check out Ray Van Dyke’s June 16th blog posting.  Thanks Ray for some sanity in the discussion of patents and their historical importance in particular to the little guy.  I’m afraid that many small inventors, particular software innovators, have been brainwashed into thinking the patent system is their enemy, while in fact it is the only thing standing between them and having their hard-won creative contributions expropriated for free.

Here is the link to Ray’s posting:  http://rayvandyke.com/2013/06/16/software-patents-shrugged/