In today's Mercury News editorial, the hotheads call for Congress to "thwart menace of patent 'trolls'".

Citing RIM paying NTP to settle patent infringement validated through the entire U.S. court system, the hotheads dramatize with, "That's just one symptom of a patent system gone insane."

"What's more, patents that are challenged and are found to be invalid by the patent office remain enforceable until the patent holder exhausts all appeals -- a process that can take years." The hotheads have yet to be introduced to the concept of due process.

The hotheads decry those evil courts: "The patent "trolls," as tech firms like to call them, have gotten a huge assist from the courts, which in most cases automatically grant injunctions to stop patent infringers." Actually, only the hotheads seem automatic like a dog. The courts exercise judgment and discretion in granting injunctive relief. And the federal government thinks the current regime is like baby bear's porridge: just right.  For example, see yesterday's blog entry. But the hotheads are unaware of baby bear, or her porridge.

The hotheads call on Congress to stem the insanity, not knowing that Congress passed the current laws, failed to pass a new patent law just last year, and are in fact the very jokers that robbed the patent office for years, thus denying it the resources to improve its vetting process. Also unknown to the hotheads, having got its fee base back, the patent office has publicly declared that no new patent legislation is required.

The hotheads would know all this if they could just read the newspapers.