The system of patents and trademarks is horribly dysfunctional in America. Titanic patent troll companies are crushing innovation by having their lawyers patent every silly and obvious thing they can think of then sue entrepreneurs whenever they violate those patents. I think that the length of patent periods should be drastically shortened to 7 years. That gives companies enough time to gain first mover advantage but removes a lot of the incentive for patent trolls to destroy innovation.