not just common, but encouraged by the regulatory and competitive environment. big companies like ibm offer patent bounties, so employees are incentivized to br

not just common, but encouraged by the regulatory and competitive environment. big companies like ibm offer patent bounties, so employees are incentivized to break improvements up into the smallest possible elements that will pass muster with the patent office so that they can maximize the amount of bounty granted per advancement. similarly, companies like to lay minefields of patents around any given technology so that if they’re the market leader, they can slow down competition, but if they don’t have the winning version, they’re at least likely to get some royalties for the patents they have. it’s perverse.