The Death of Google's Patents? - "The Patent and Trademark Office has now made clear that its newly developed position on patentable subject matter will invalidate many and perhaps most software patents, including pioneering patent claims to such innovators as Google, Inc." - Only in the Banana Republic do the paid prolethicians still clamor for the introduction of software patents, because we just need them. And how does their argument "we need them, otherwise we look stupid compared to the USA" look now that the US Patent Office itself says: "Software patents are a mess"?