"That was kinda shocking to me as a SE to see a patent writing as a part of my job but I realized it was a holdover from earlier times." Useful activity for cu

"That was kinda shocking to me as a SE to see a patent writing as a part of my job but I realized it was a holdover from earlier times." Useful activity for current times. Patent licensing and suits are a big money-maker and competition blocker for companies like IBM. For instance, Microsoft has made over a billion dollars on patent royalties *for Android." All that distracting paperwork paid off nicely. IBM used their legal team to crush a company selling commercial versions of Hercules emulator. Oracle vs Google. Apple vs Samsung. Intel recently threatened patent suits if anyone clones x86 to get off Intel chips. This stuff has a real, financial benefit to these companies. So, they're justified in investing in it.