> even an "extremely low" absolute number (like one in a thousand) is unacceptable. Like herd immunity in epidemology? The really large corporations are mostl

> even an "extremely low" absolute number (like one in a thousand) is unacceptable. Like herd immunity in epidemology? The really large corporations are mostly immune, because they have the resources to fight the disease from the carriers. Everyone else is subject to ill effects. With luck the carriers die off before they can infect the non-immune population. When you get more carriers, the spread of the disease increases exponentially. In case of patents we see two things playing out at the same time: the race to get more bad patents issued, and more actors trying to abuse the existing ones. The herd immunity is long gone, and everyone suffers.