As someone who has worked for a number of technology companies and has been through a few patent infringement law suits I can tell you that not all patents out there are legitimate and there are a bunch of companies out there whose sole business purpose is to sue each other over these crappy patents. Some of the technical patents I came across were so broad that they encompassed a large portion of the internet which is so commonly used that it belongs in the public domain - I can only imagine that whoever approved this was technically inept. Imagine if someone patented use of water and air today and suddenly we were all in violation.
Now the image above is just a subset of the mobile industry but when you consider every patent out there you can imagine how things can get real messy and real fast. Patent office gets paid to approve crappy patents, predatory companies sue each other over this crap, scummy lawyers get paid off and someone along the way makes a bunch of money while hardworking people are sucking on their thumbs. Another day, more bullshit - this is business as usual.
Image courtesy of Reuters
