jducoeur

True, but those are largely one-off fees, as the system adjusts to the new structure. In the long run, one would expect prices to drop a tad, not just because of a lowered "patent tax" from license fees, but because (as the new standards become better-understood) of fewer things being submitted to the moderately expensive patent process.

Of course, that's assuming that stricter standards do not, in fact, impede innovation, as the hardcore patent absolutists claim they would. I personally believe that they probably wouldn't, but it remains to be tested...