I completely agree. We can argue all day long about whether or not things like software patents are good. But I think the very minimum bar to file a patent should be "we actually made a prototype of this that does what we're claiming."

At the very least, it's perfectly reasonable to expect schematics for how a prototype could be built.

It is supposed to be good enough that someone "skilled in the art" could build it after reading the patent.

That probably means that the concepts you describe have to be common knowledge to those skilled in the art... basically a commodity. But what is described in this patent is unfeasible and whoever discovers the implementation could be only one of few who could do it.

The problem is that when they say "wireless" what they mean is that they enumerated every possible wireless tech and probably any future tech.

With WiFi alone a tablet that is using the tablet equivalent of OnLive is possible.

Or maybe something you don't want invented. Patent it, then, when it is invented, charge licensing royalties so high that it can't reasonably be created.

Maybe that's the route to global peace: just imagine weapons, start patenting them, and charge trillions for licensing.

Unfortunately, once the thing can be made, it will be, somewhere. If it's not legal, but people want it, then it will be made in secret.

Well, if you don't have enough resources to develop it yourself you might have to get external funding and to make sure your backers don't steal the idea and produce it themselves you patent it. Isn't this how patents are supposed to protect small independent innovators? If it works or not I'm not qualified to answer.

Still, i think that at least some form of prototype must be available or must be demonstrated within a certain timeframe. And the patent in question here is just ridiculous. Wireless displays must exist already?

As long as the precondition is infeasible, I'm happy to let him have his 20 years of patent protection.

Or, he has safe, wireless, power distribution in his hip pocket and wants to patent all the derivatives and applications before the big reveal.

Now that I think about it, I'm really OK with that one.