Z:gnu-www-ja-limit-patent-effect--b018c2-Second, the US already has man/en

Second, the US already has many thousands of computational idea patents, and changing the criteria to prevent issuing more would not get rid of the existing ones. We would have to wait almost 20 years for the problem to be entirely corrected through the expiration of these patents. We could envision legislating the abolition of these existing patents, but that is probably unconstitutional. (The Supreme Court has perversely insisted that Congress can extend private privileges at the expense of the public's rights but that it can't go in the other direction.)