Because today is a slow news day, I thought I'd bring up an issue with a story on our site yesterday. Namely, DE Technologies, a small Virginia company, will attempt to enforce a patent on international electronic commerce. Although the patent has not yet been granted, every indication is that the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (PTO) will grant the company a patent for "a process for carrying out an international transaction…using computer-to-computer communications."

The company wants to charge everyone 0.3 percent for each international e-commerce transaction. This is nearly as absurd as British Telecom's assertion that it would charge Web sites for using hypertext, which is covered under a patent the company holds for the ubiquitous technology. I have an idea: why don't we patent all modes of travel and charge people a toll for walking down the street? Or, how about patenting the water faucet and charging everyone every time they wash their hands?

Along with just about every other technology-related publication, we have long reported the PTO's utter lack of responsibility in granting patents, especially in the software arena. The most publicized cases include Amazon.com's patent on one-click ordering and Demandline.com's patent on the reverse auction. Neither of these patents protects a novel process, nor is it very difficult to engineer similar processes. But the DE Technologies' patent claim raises absurdity to new heights. Not only is international e-commerce way too general and not at all novel--the litmus test of an invalid patent--DE's claim is entirely unenforceable. Will it sue me for 0.3 percent of my $3 online purchase of English marmalade? Go ahead.

What bothers me here is that despite huge flack from just about everyone who knows about this problem, little has been done to reform the PTO. I know there are bills somewhere in the bowels of Congress for PTO reform, but the last time that I checked, they were getting buried in omnibus bills loaded with pork and special interest. For once, can't we get something done that reforms an antiquated bureaucracy before it does immeasurable harm to society?

What to do about the PTO? Vent to me at james@computeruser.com.

James Mathewson is editorial director of computeruser.com.