Love the idea that if an opposing power developed force fields + compact fusion reactors, that the last line of defence would be patent law.
It turns out that humans are the only species in the universe capable of creating good music and as soon as other races detected our radio waves, they started listening to and reproducing our music.
Eventually, the radio waves with our licensing information reach them and every alien race realizes they've been committing copyright infringement on an absolutely massive scale.
Chaos and hijinks ensue.