Apply is playing a game it ought to be fighting. Over the long run these sorts of patents and the costly legal disputes they result in will severely harm our ability to drive our economy with innovative and creative new ideas. We’re already seeing that in all the legal disputes surrounding tablets. Rather than working to create the best tablet at the best price, Apple and others are trying to drive other tablet makers from the marketplace with court injunctions.

Years ago, conservative commentator William Buckley criticized a liberal law professor for using legal loopholes to put violent criminals out on the street. The professor defended himself not by claiming his clients were innocent but by arguing that, as a lawyer he had a professional responsibility to use every trick in the book to get his client free. Buckley’s reply to that fits this situation perfectly. He pointed out that the professor didn’t spend all his time defending thugs. He could have spent some of his time and talent closing those foul loopholes.

The same principle applies here. Apple’s lawyers should be doing more than glutting a broken system with their own dubious patents. It should be working to fix a broken USPTO and devoting at least a quarter of its legal budget to creating a patent climate that rewards rather than discourages innovation.