This is precisely why we need patent reform. I would suggest a radical departure from reform supporting big business and big capital. The reason by M$ and Apple and big Pharma are ruining innovation by creating patent thickets and making their true creators (the "paid" engineers and scientist) who actually do the work and should get the credit. The effects are far reaching and I believe have severely stilted our technological development since Apollo. It's sad when all the good information and development is being done by companies who hire our best and brightest (groomed by tax dollars) and then proprietize and hide information so that no one can build upon that. How about reforms which put some degree of proprietorship into who created it (by law) regardless of what company they work for.