The patent office can strike down a lot of obviously conflicting patents, reducing load on the courts.<p>Patents were created to promote innovation.  That hasn&#x27;t been working effectively in the world of software.<p>The idea was, in exchange for sharing your idea, the government will protect you.  So, you get some profit and a head start, and everyone else gets to build upon your idea after some period of time.<p>Tech giants like Google lately are not enforcing many useful and innovative patents.  They create them as a defense.  That says something about their view of software patents.<p>If you&#x27;re asking for my opinion on patent reform, I&#x27;d drop the term on software patents way lower, like 3-5 years.  That&#x27;s enough time to generate a customer base for the filer and allow others with the same idea to have a chance to compete within his or her lifetime.<p>I can&#x27;t speak for other fields.  I would not agree that software patent reform means everything needs to be shut down.