NPR has a really good article on the absurd state of patents in the U.S.

” ‘We’re at a point in the state of intellectual property where existing patents probably cover every behavior that’s happening on the Internet or our mobile phones today,’ says Chris Sacca, the venture capitalist. ‘[T]he average Silicon Valley start-up or even medium sized company, no matter how truly innovative they are, I have no doubt that aspects of what they’re doing violate patents right now. And that’s what’s fundamentally broken about this system right now.’ “

Update 9/20/2012: Stack Exchange just released Ask Patent, which they describe as “a crowd-sourced worldwide detective agency to track down and obliterate bogus patent applications.”