Can we get patents?

Hackers,

I was reading LWN.net and noticed an article about Eben Moglen's keynote
at linux.conf.au. Apparently he advises free software projects to get
patents on their best ideas.

Eben encouraged free software developers to record their novel
inventions and to obtain patents on the best of them. Free legal
help can be made available to obtain patents on the best ideas.
Until the rules of the game can be changed, we must play the
game, and having the right patents available may make all the
difference in defending against an attack.

http://lwn.net/Articles/133421/

Eben Moglen is the FSF's attorney.

I'm wondering, could the PostgreSQL Foundation (or some other entity)
get patents on some parts of Postgres? Maybe ResourceOwners for
example; or the newer parts of the optimizer.

The patents would be freely licensed to everyone (including commercial
redistributors and developers/users of competing products), except to
patent litigators, or something like that.

--
Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[(at)]dcc(dot)uchile(dot)cl>)
"La espina, desde que nace, ya pincha" (Proverbio africano)