Isn't that kind of the best strategy? You -- as a corporation -- want to make investments for the future. Each patent is a possible income stream in the future

Isn't that kind of the best strategy? You -- as a corporation -- want to make investments for the future. Each patent is a possible income stream in the future if the technology behind the patent somehow becomes "big". So it makes sense to patent everything you can, just for the chance of one of them to go "big". Companies can't just spend money on research expecting no return, at least not for a long time. That's what academia is built to do.