Noted Professor of Law Lawrence Lessig posted a blurb about recent (failed) efforts to get the World Intellectual Property Organization to consider adopting and supporting "open and collaborative projects to create public goods," of which FOSS was just one example. Things appeared to be going smoothly at first, but once Microsoft started lobbying against these efforst, true ignorance was shown.
Read the full story. It'll answer a lot of questions about why our patent and IP systems are in such a sorry state.