Abolish the PTO
At this point, I think the only sane answer is to:
- Eliminate all existing patents in the US
- Rewind patent law to the state it was in circa 1787
- Start over
Why do I say that? Well, consider the latest idiocy coming from the US PTO:
the company [Amazon] has just received a patent on what has become a common method of giving presents — a system for selecting digital gifts such as movies, music or e-books, sending an electronic notification to a recipient, and allowing them to download the gift.
Never mind technical expertise; what kind of utter moron thought that was worthy of a patent?