>what you lay out would be infinitely worse. All those "shoulds" are decisions that would be made by beurocrats with little real understanding (who really knows whether the $9000 device can really be substituted with an iPad and app?).

I can't say that I have all the answers, but neither are you providing any alternatives.

Can you make a suggestion as to how to prevent patents (or for that matter other IP protections) from being used as a tool to prevent innovation as opposed to promote it, as it was intended?