Mark Lemley wrote an entire paper on patents being ignored: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=999961 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?ab

Mark Lemley wrote an entire paper on patents being ignored: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=999961 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=999961 > both researchers and companies in component industries simply ignore patents. Virtually everyone does it. They do it at all stages of endeavor. From the perspective of an outsider to the patent system, this is a remarkable fact. And yet it may be what prevents the patent system from crushing innovation in component industries like IT.