Well, I did like drawing hovercrafts when I was little and I needed a set up for a joke about Internet Explorer. I thought it was funny anyway. ;)
Oh the Internet Explorer joke was great. I just wasn't sure why the guy was downloading Firefox from within a Hovercraft :) I do like the questioner's plan about fixing the two things: a) That you are penalised for independently inventing something, and b) That there is no "fair use" provision for interoperability. I agree, that would solve a lot of the issues (though not all). And while it is nice to imagine a world without software patents, it is probably more practical to make those as demands. In particular, the second clause would eliminate most "submarine patents" (patents where someone waits a long time until everybody is using a standard before revealing that they have a patent on that standard, and sues everybody). Matt