I can't get rid of the feeling that (software) patents are just a means of driving out competition. For a competitor, it adds layers of unproductive expenditur

I can't get rid of the feeling that (software) patents are just a means of driving out competition. For a competitor, it adds layers of unproductive expenditures (legal work), pressures competitors into piling up their own stock of patents as leverage, thus creating patents whose creative accomplishment is the application for an patent. It creates a legal mine-field of patents, more legal insecurities, making an industry unattractive to enter. (software) patents mean more waste of money, less competition, less innovation and are turning a free-market into a oligarchy-game, where participation is impossible without being part of the big players.