No institution is more responsible for the recent explosion of patent litigation in the software industry, the rise of patent trolls, and the proliferation of patent thickets than the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The patent court’s thirtieth birthday this week is a good time to ask whether it was a mistake to give the nation’s most patent-friendly appeals court such broad authority over the patent system.

Further “Either way, breaking the Federal Circuit’s monopoly on patent appeals may be the single most important step we can take to fix the patent system.”

Is it surprising that a judicial monopoly over an intellectual monopoly should turn out poorly?