Transparency in the patent marketplace

Alan Minsk's guest post on Patentlyo touches on some important issues in an ongoing discussion about increasing transparency in the patent marketplace. The contention floating around the patent blog-o-sphere is that lack of transparency in the patent sale and licensing process can easily lead to inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and--possibly--injustice.

Minsk does a great job of teasing out the central issue in this discussion: is the patent marketplace a part of the patent system? If so, to what degree should it become government-regulated? If not, are we ready to live with the consequences of malicious, non-transparent licensing behavior that will result?