Reading about Paul Allen’s recent round of “…but on the web” e-commerce patent suits reminds me of one of the most objectionable aspects of the current patent system: the way that when a new technology or medium appears, rights to using it in combination with existing ideas seem to get assigned in a “first post!” manner. It always makes me think of this excerpt from the “I Want My Dollar!” story Feynman tells in “Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman!”: …during the war, at Los Alamos, there was a very nice fella in charge of the patent office for the government, named Captain Smith. Smith sent around a notice to everybody that said something like, “We in the patent office would like to patent every idea you have for the United States government, for which you are working now.[…] I say to him, “That note you sent around: That’s kind of crazy to have us come in and tell you every idea. […] There are so many ideas about nuclear energy that are so perfectly obvious, that I’d be here all day... - Anthony Bailey