It looks to me like the Patent Reform Act of 2009, is an improvement, the patent troll crowd are generally negative on it, and Senator Feingold’s statement in opposition suggests that it weakens patents too much, which is a good thing.

The real question is what happens in conference.

In my dream scenario, the patenting of software algorithms, tax deductions, business plans, genes, and species would be invalidated, and a litigant could file a suit against a patent as a plaintiff without having to infringe, as is done with civil rights suits.