"This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America's top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time. In the past few decades, in fact, Romney has piled more debt onto more unsuspecting companies, written more gigantic checks that other people have to cover, than perhaps all but a handful of people on planet Earth."

In theory, public opinion should be able to change the system, but given the corporatocracy we live in today, opinions are unlikely to have any real effect anytime soon. Juries on the other hand do have the power to have some real immediate impact. If the jury in this case had actually taken the time to more thoroughly examine the patents in question rather than hammering their way through the 700+ questions on the verdict form, it's possible they might have come to a different decision on the validity of the patents.

Juries do actually have the power to change the system by invalidating patents. If that happens often enough, we might see companies file fewer patents and fewer suits. 

Given the difficulty of determining exactly what most of these patents even claim, it's no wonder examiners can do a proper prior art search to determine if claims have already been done. Unfortunately instead of rejecting unclear applications, examiners seem to have just thrown up their hands in the face of the deluge and just granted everything. 

Over at +The Verge, +Nilay Patel takes a look at Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent. Many other writers have given up trying to decipher it, just assuming  it gives Apple all rights to pinch-to-zoom. After a careful reading, Nilay explains that it is actually pretty easy to work around.