I know, and it is worse than that. Over a hundred patents on ECC techniques, at least five on identity based encryption, and even patents on fully homomorphic

I know, and it is worse than that. Over a hundred patents on ECC techniques, at least five on identity based encryption, and even patents on fully homomorphic encryption despite the fact that FHE is still years from practicality (including at least one patent on FHE that was granted before Gentry even showed that FHE is possible). It is, simply put, a monumental failure on the part of patent examiners.