Great insight on continuing patent applications. I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment that overly broad patents, particularly with respect to technology, need serious review. It is way too easy to patent a concept instead of an invention.

An example to illustrate my point is a patent such as this: http://www.google.com/patents/US20140244001

Which basically says, I haven't actually invented anything useful, but if anyone else does they should have to pay me because I thought of something super generic first.