It's been said on HN that, for a while now, all the big tech companies have been engaging in a form of Mutually Assured Destruction, stockpiling nuclear patents

It's been said on HN that, for a while now, all the big tech companies have been engaging in a form of Mutually Assured Destruction, stockpiling nuclear patents. Patents are being used as a deterrent beyond their intended purpose. Now, with the ongoing Oracle v. Google and Yahoo v. Facebook battles, the patent cold war is turning into an outright patent war. With IBM selling these patents for legal reasons rather than for technological progress (in fact, arguably for technological hindrance), patent holders could now be becoming a sort of arms dealer.