There are two sides to every story, but given some of the evidence in this case, this seems like exactly what patents are supposed to be for. E.g. little compan

There are two sides to every story, but given some of the evidence in this case, this seems like exactly what patents are supposed to be for. E.g. little company invents novel technology, then big company comes in and copies them (by largely hiring out a bunch of their employees). E.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38689442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38689442 I'm also usually strongly against patents, especially for software, but I think your characterization is completely off base here.