US Patent Law is Sending Independent Developers Running

An interesting Guardian article about the Mumbai based software developer, Kootol, patenting "A Method and System for Communication, Advertising, Searching, Sharing and Dynamically Providing a Journal Feed". The Indian company is suing all the social networking bigboys including Google, Twitter, Apple, Linkedin and RIM over what it claims to be "patent infringement".
It is strikingly clear that patents no longer serve their intended purpose. Instead of protecting the small innovator, patents are used a corporate vice grip. A small software developer will likely lose his business regardless of the outcome of a patent lawsuit due to its exorbitant cost. Furthermore, that same small developer is unlikely to apply for a patent in the first place because, as we have seen recently, it's not really the patent that protects you but the size of your wallet.

Here's what Thomas Jefferson thinks about patents.