Please sign this petition if bogus patents concern you

[Troy Johnson <john1536@tc.umn.edu>]

http://www.ethepeople.com/affiliates/national/fullview.cfm?ETPID=0&PETID=98938&ETPDIR=affiliates/national

                Bogus Patent Problem:
                It seems a daily occurrence that a new patent covering
either ridiculously broad
                ground or public-domain information is granted. Recent
examples include
                #5860073 ("The use of style sheets in electronic
publishing system"), #5191573
                and #5675734 (covering the sale of downloaded
music/video) and #5838906
                (covering embedding scripts in web pages). Patents such
as these threaten the
                very way today's business is conducted and information
is exchanged. They
                cover such broad ground and such ubiquitous technology
that large numbers of
                businesses and/or individuals are forced either into
litigation (which many cannot
                afford) or to pay the high costs of licensing. The
competence of the U.S. Patent
                and Trademark Office is increasingly being questioned in
the media and
                elsewhere. Because of this, we, the undersigned,
petition the U.S. Government to
                either 1) Address the questions of competence raised
about the USPTO, or 2)
                Change Intellectual Property Law to disallow the sort of
patents mentioned above.