Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

A WSJ article by ASHBY JONES and JESSICA E. VASCELLARO on patent wars about "slide to unlock" ends with a quote:

"When you have companies spending hundreds of millions in litigation, something is seriously wrong with our patent system," said Michael Carrier, a professor at Rutgers School of Law in Camden, N.J. "You've got to wonder whether it's doing more harm than good," he added.

In the arena of biofuels, Cindy Zimmerman writes of the patent war between Butamax and Gevo:

Granted, business is business, but if these two companies are truly interested in furthering the energy independence of this country by taking advanced biofuels to the next level, they would get together and collaborate to commercialize this fuel. Until then, hold the press releases unless there is a technical breakthrough or big news that will advance biofuels. That would be interesting.

Quotes such as these are nothing new. The interested person should go back 100 years and read press reports of the patent wars involving the Wright Brothers. And, note George Bernard Shaw's 'Revolutionist's Handbook' (1903). Same old, same old.