The Macalope’s just going to come out and say it: patents are stupid. He’s all for making sure inventors don’t get screwed by people jacking their ideas, but the current system is broken. Too often it’s about locking up vague concepts or entire markets that look promising in the future.

And those little black-and-white drawings? What the heck is that all about? Hey, patents, 1790 sent a messenger on horseback: It wants its design ethic back.

People when Apple patent applications for a variety of iOS apps started showing up. Apple’s already the App Store gatekeeper, they said; having the company trying to lock up app ideas doesn’t seem like a good trend.