One can blame the U.S. Patent Office. It seems to believe that its job is to protect the rights of inventors at the expense of the public good. Historically the opposite has been been true. Gleick explains that the Patent Office views inventors as its customers, whom it seeks to serve better. The public interest seems lost in the shuffle of legal papers.
Patents are just one example of privatizing the Internet.
Some believe that creating a database of prior art might help the Patent Office eliminate seemingly obvious applications for patents. Some experts say you can't fight the patent system. The software industry tried to do so in the early '90s and failed to achieve any substantial reform. Bezos has responded by issuing a call for reform of software patents. The issue is greater than reforming the patent system, however.