Working at Microsoft, I was not allowed to even read patents incase I accidently infringed on one, which would become willful infringement since I had read the

Working at Microsoft, I was not allowed to even read patents incase I accidently infringed on one, which would become willful infringement since I had read the patent. So, that means no learning from what others had done, which is the entire idea of publicly posted patents vs trade secrets. The patent system is literally causing the opposite of innovation to happen in certain technology spaces.