This really isn't true. Generally patents are used to prevent your competitors deliberately reverse engineering your innovation and selling it (which isn't _gen

This really isn't true. Generally patents are used to prevent your competitors deliberately reverse engineering your innovation and selling it (which isn't _generally_ all that hard), and (by very large companies) to have something to negotiate with when you inevitably discover you're violating a patent you were unaware of, since at this point you dig for the patent your competitor is accidentally violating and come to an agreement to license them back to each other in exchange for not suing.