...wait until someone does the hard work and sue/get licensing payoffs. If someone else thinks it's worth doing that work, that suggests there is a payoff to i

...wait until someone does the hard work and sue/get licensing payoffs. If someone else thinks it's worth doing that work, that suggests there is a payoff to implementing it. If you are in the position to implement it, you probably stand more to gain from doing so yourself than hoping somebody stumbles into it. If you're not in the position to implement, or perhaps not on the right scale, it's in your interests to license it to somebody who does or for them to buy you out. It would be pointless to just leave it unimplemented and unlicensed. That isn't to say patent trolling hasn't worked for some--only that it's a bug and not a feature. It has more to do with bad patent grants than a lack of incentive. ...where problems are hard, etc. But software/UI certainly isn't an area like that. Then why do so many do it so poorly?