Here’s an issue people concerned about patents should know about: Rambus is trying to use its patents to basically monopolize the entire market for RAM. Even though their own technology is failure, they’ve been able to convince all of the world’s big RAM manufacturers (except Micron) that their patents apply to all of the varieties of next generation RAM and extract huge licensing fees from them. Micron is currently in court trying to get the patents invalidated. I wish them luck.