Nice lesson that a patent, other than some possible value to the marketing dept, is nothing more than a a ticket to start a lawsuit. It does not actually preve

Nice lesson that a patent, other than some possible value to the marketing dept, is nothing more than a a ticket to start a lawsuit. It does not actually prevent anyone else from infringing or doing what they want, unless and until they hire the lawyers to attempt to enforce it. Having a lot of published prior art may form a decent moat. Sure, you'll have to defend, but if you fold, they get nothing, and if you sustain the defense, they'll likely lose the patent entirely. She also makes a very good point about bridging patent- light and patent-heavy sectors/cultures. Also relevant is Musk's choice with SpaceX at the other end of the scale -- to forego patents entirely in favor of the trade secret route. He figures that publishing in a patent would just be tantamount to publishing manuals for the Chinese and also be unenforceable... Patents sometimes seem almost magic, but they're really quite limited.