There are two things you may not be considering, though. 1) Mislabeling products with fake or expired patent numbers can be pretty hostile. I'm sure it happen

There are two things you may not be considering, though. 1) Mislabeling products with fake or expired patent numbers can be pretty hostile. I'm sure it happens by mistake in many cases, but I'm also sure it's malicious in others. 2) A few lawyers might make some cash bringing these lawsuits, but it won't last. Companies will quickly fix these problems if they're on the hook for more-than-tiny damages. It's pretty clear that $500 wrist slaps weren't doing any good. Intellectual property laws create weird instances of deadweight loss. This one's just obvious and visible. Less obvious and visible are excess profits a manufacturer might take in if they manage to scare would-be competitors off with irrelevant patents. So yeah, I don't really have much problem with the lawyers who are exploiting this.