Oh, and that means no patents on intangibles like software.
Amen. Software patents are almost entirely snake oil.
“Oh, and that means no patents on intangibles like software.”
All intellectual property is for intangibles.
The problem with patenting software and similar things like business processes is how multi-national corporations and the mega-rich game the system to circumvent the Constitutional parameter of “limited times” in order to create perpetual monopolies.
The solution on the software side is that all source code and documentation should be released and become open-source when the patent expires, and the length of time protecting software should be limited to the lifecycle which is generally less than 5 years.