Fighting the patents threat.

I was just thinking (again). The main argument made during the petents
debate is that only the big companies get to have the large petant
portfolios. And with that they get secure cover using crossliscencing
arragements. In effect nobody can sue them because they can counter
sue them right back.
And the small little individual developer is left stranded. He might
barely be able to get one or two patents but getting 500 of them
isn't possible.
But i have a solution. Why not each of the OSS groups start filing for
patents. This will definately generate a large collective patent pool.
Time and again we have seen OSS tends to be lot more innovative and
radical than anything else.
And then each OSS groups should get together under some umbrella
group. This way anyone belonging to this group will have not just
access but the pseudo ownership of all thep patents.
So if somebody sues an OSS company for some stupid patent like jpeg or
mp3 decoder. They counter sue with everything they got. That will
basically mean about 1000 or so out of million or so at their
dispence. Microsoft will never even think about claiming any software
as their inteelctual property.
Big OSS players like Novel, IBM and Sun can kickstart this by
extending their current patents pledges to this umbrela group.