I found this CNET article about the US patent system in a HardOCP news item on my Google homepage. It talks about various flaws with the current patent system, presents examples of those flaws, and briefly discusses current legislation aimed at fixing some of those flaws. I generally don’t read things on CNET, but this author is a partner at a law firm in New York and has a JD from Columbia (and BS from MIT), so it might be worth reading if you’re interested in that kind of stuff.