Two Challenges to Fixing Software Patents

Two Challenges to Fixing Software Patents: Software patents play a huge--and controversial--role in our economy.  In a recent post, I explained some of the unique problems that software innovations pose to the patent system.  This post extends that discussion by exploring two structural hurdles to addressing those problems: (1) the challenge of defining "software," and (2) which regulatory institution(s) can implement any fixes.  In the near future, I will conclude this three-part series of posts by exploring specific ideas to fix software patents.