Whatever passes would be legislation that further entrenches the biggest corps. It's the only thing that ever passes congress these days.

They already passed such legislation. And you're right, it is a joke.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leahy-Smith_America_Invents_Ac...

Basically, it moves US patent law from first-to-invent to first-to-file. So it lowers litigation costs for the big guys who take ideas from the little guys and use their big legal departments to file the patent on it before the little guy can.

.. or in a less cynical view, it makes it easier for a little guy to sue a big guy without getting into a huge "who did what first" court battle.

...or in an even more cynical view, let's big corporations and trolls to file patents for things that have long been in use but nobody even thought about patenting.

That's not how it works. It doesn't allow you to patent prior things because you're first, it is just to kill of disputes when people patent something "simultaneously".

Considering the patents that have been granted, I'm not so sure about that. Maybe it's supposed to be like that in theory, but in practice it seems companies can copyright basic shapes and colors.

It's not and never has been that simple. Apple didn't patent the square with rounded circle - they panted the square with a rounded circle in combination with a single button at the bottom and with a specific UI in the middle laid out in a specific way with specific features.

That's fine by me as long as those "biggest corps" actually do something and aren't just patent trolls.

One man, one vote.

One Big Wallet, one heck of a lot of votes.