As if the patent system weren't already fucked enough... Congress is now managing to band together make it worse.

Yes, worse.

The backlog of applications isn't really a problem as much as that they hand out patents on pretty much anything. Switching formally to a "first to file" method is stupendously bad, since it would seem to simply be streamlining invention theft by whomever can figure out a way to fill out a patent application for anything not yet patented (which isn't much!). Whether it was invented by someone else, currently in development, or already to-market doesn't seem like it's even going to matter anymore.

We are screwed.

"All your ideas are belong to lawyers."

More asshattery...

Apple being sued for having a playlist, basically.

...because someone wrote "I stick a bunch of records on the record player so they'll play in sequence" on a cocktail napkin, added "on the computer" to the end, and filed it as a patent.

Apple sued for violating a patent on a playlist...

Why, here's a load of geniuses who claim to have invented purchasing a feature upgrade...

...once again by writing it on a cocktail napkin, adding "on the computer" to the end, and sending it to the patent office.

It's way more fun than the old game of reading a fortune cookie and appending "in bed" to the end of it. More profitable, too.

Sure, we invented that.