And thanks to patent monopolies, the laid off staff can't use their skills, experience and knowledge to compete with their former employers. Thanks, assinine corporatist US patent system!

Real free markets mean no patents.

You are right Spumco, real free markets mean no patents, but they also mean to formal capital system, no framework with which parties can make and enforce contracts, and most likely, little innovation.

Its interesting you say that individual innovators cannot compete with firms like IBM because of patents, but you provide little as to what those innovators have to leverage in bargaining and collaborating with larger and more powerful entities. Hmmm, patents come to mind... you should get one some time.

"no framework with which parties can make and enforce contracts"

Except for... contract law! Are you that moronic?

"most likely, little innovation." ?

Except that reality, Noel, has already disproven that - the pre-patenting history of computing itself, the technological progress in WWII when patents could be bypassed, etc.

There may be less corporate-controlled innovation, but that's a good thing in my book. Reducing the costs of innovation to zero means that anyone can innovate, without central control or authority, terrifying the poor little corpies, but much better for most of us.