Criticism of NAS patent reform proposal in IDEA

Dale L. Carlson et al. criticize the proposal of the National Academy of Sciences for patent reform in the paper "Patent Linchpin for the 21st Century -- Best Mode Revisited," 45 IDEA 267 (2005).

At pages 279-280: The NAS recommendation to remove best mode is based on two misperceptions:
1. that the cost of the best mode requirement exceeds the value
2. that best mode is an obstacle in international harmonization.

The NAS report is by Stephen A. Merrill, Richard C. Levin, and Mark B. Myers, and is entitled A Patent System for the 21st Century. I have criticized it for relying on a comparison of foreign grant rates to US grant rates to infer deficient quality in the US patent review process.

UPDATE:
The PromotetheProgress blog has a page on patent reform:

http://promotetheprogress.com/archives/2005/06/the_ptp_patent_1.html

Also, my law review articles in JIP discuss some of the patent reform proposals of the FTC and the NAS.