At this point software patents are broken beyond repair. The express purpose of patents is to encourage innovation. They're being used only to dampen innovation now. Why is that? The main reason is that patents, when created, are absurdly broad and often obvious and still accepted. Well over 90% of the existing software patents should have been denied as they're obvious ideas. There's a patent on backing up data online for heaven's sake. It's now to the point that anything you do on a computer will violate a patent somewhere.

What's even worse than stupid patents is the money being paid for them. A collection of patents, most of which are useless, being bought for billions of dollars is stupid. That money could have gone into R&D, employee salary, etc any of which would have been better. And the worst part? The reason you should be able to buy a patent is so that you can produce new technology and software with the unique idea contained in it. Unfortunately, the patents don't see the light of day as software because they're bought; nothing in those patents is new to google. They're simple a defense against other patents.

In the US the patent system is one of the most stupid and broken systems still functioning. Either patents need to be done in with altogether for software or the acceptance of them needs to only happen after significantly stricter review.