The source article (linked from that one) is very interesting. It makes a very good point about the difference between chemical and pharmaceutical patents and

The source article (linked from that one) is very interesting. It makes a very good point about the difference between chemical and pharmaceutical patents and for example software patents - the first ones are indexable and it is easy to find out if you are infringing or if there is something already done that you could license. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2016968 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2016968