The patent system is so useful, charging vendors billions of dollars for implementing an idea like “use the most obvious possible power saving strategies”.
The patent system also helps small companies with little working capital get started on big, obvious, money intensive challenges without being immediately crushed by megacorps. The razor cuts both ways.
Yes, this is the truth. Look at the recent Cisco patent case. They pulled a Facebook and stole some startups IP while meeting with them. The startup won over 1.5 billion in damages, mostly because they were able to show willful infringement on Cisco's part.
